News Information and Media Site: How Texas's 6-week abortion ban could change US reproductive rights

THE BIG STORY

A 6-week abortion ban took effect in Texas after the Supreme Court didn't take immediate action to stop it.

Pro–abortion rights protesters march outside the Texas state Capitol on May 29, 2021, in Austin. (Sergio Flores/Getty Images)

The US Supreme Court took no action to block a Texas law that bans abortions in the state beginning at 6 weeks of pregnancy. The law took effect at 12:01 a.m. in Texas.

The justices may still rule on the law, but just allowing it to go into effect marks a monumental shift in abortion rights in the US.

For decades, US courts have held that abortion is a right before a fetus is viable (meaning it can survive outside of a person's womb), which is generally around 24 weeks of pregnancy. Texas's SB 8 law makes abortion illegal once a heartbeat can be detected. Heartbeat detection is possible around the 6-week mark — just two weeks after a missed period — when many people may not even realize they're pregnant.

So what does this mean for the future of abortion access in the US? Because of how the Texas case reached the justices, Tuesday's lack of action only affects that state, at least for now.

But the law going into effect sets the stage for a major ruling on abortion in 2022. Next fall, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. Justices are set to consider whether it can be constitutional for any state to ban abortion before a fetus is considered viable. The court's willingness to consider the case at all signals a potentially massive sea change in abortion rights — especially given their silence on this Texas law.

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

COVID has worsened the impact of Hurricane Ida, creating a "major disaster" for Louisiana.

Spurring on power outages, hospital building damage, and mass evacuations, Ida is set to exacerbate Louisiana's COVID-19 crisis in the coming days and weeks.

"It's already a major disaster but it has the potential to spiral a little bit out of control," said Joshua Denson, director of the medical intensive care unit at Tulane.

Pre-Ida, Louisiana had been struggling for weeks to get the Delta variant under control. COVID cases in the state were rapidly rising, and the governor recently reinstated mask mandates and other restrictions. Just 41% of the state is fully vaccinated.

Now, doctors fear that the virus surge will multiply, with vaccination centers closed and people unable to socially distance. Hospitals are also increasingly understaffed as healthcare workers evacuate the region, and the lack of electricity raises concerns about how long doctors can continue supporting patients.

SNAPSHOTS

Devastating photos show the Caldor fire burning near Lake Tahoe. As temperatures rise around the world due to climate change, massive and destructive wildfires have become California's new normal.

He got out of Afghanistan just in time. His family didn't. Since the Taliban swept to power, Farhad Wajdi's family has been in hiding. He's contacted everyone he knows to try and get them evacuated. Nothing has worked.

"I'm his son, I'm straight, and I'm from Kansas." The Other Two co-creator Chris Kelly and actor Noam Ash discussed the limits to queerness that straight people are comfortable with, Pete Buttigieg, and the episode that gay viewers reeling.

COMMANDER IN CHIEF

Joe Biden defended his decision to not push the Afghanistan withdrawal into a "forever exit."

In a speech Tuesday, Biden said, "This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan." The president said he saw the withdrawal as a marker of "ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries."

At the same time, Biden signaled that US drone strikes will likely continue in Afghanistan:

"We can strike terrorists and targets without American boots on the ground, or very few if needed. We've shown that capacity just in the last week. We struck ISIS-K remotely. Days after they murdered 13 of our service members and dozens of innocent Afghans," he said.

America's military presence in Afghanistan lasted 20 years, under four presidents including Biden. Through that time, the US military deployed drone strikes targeting terrorists largely in rural provinces, which also killed many Afghan civilians. In total, over 47,000 Afghan civilians died as a result of the US war in the country, according to data compiled by Brown University's Costs of War Project.

A CASE OF QUID PRO QUO

Britney Spears' lawyer accused her dad of trying to extort $2 million from her conservatorship.

#FreeBritney activists protest during a conservatorship hearing for Britney Spears on June 23, 2021, in Los Angeles. (Rich Fury/Getty Images)

Britney Spears' attorney, Mathew Rosengart, has filed a supplemental petition to remove her father, Jamie Spears, from her conservatorship, saying that his response to her request to remove him amounted to "quid pro quo."

An attorney for the singer's father said that Jamie Spears intended to step down as conservator, but only after resolving certain issues, including "the pending Twelfth Account and a final account."

According to Rosengart's filing, that account includes payments to Jamie Spears for legal work addressing "public, media, and social media attention" and for "continu[ing] to do my best to keep current regarding the music, advertising and entertainment business," a total of $1,356,293 in attorneys' fees for his counsel, and a $500,000 payment to Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group.

In court papers, Jamie Spears has maintained that he has appropriately managed his daughter's finances. Attorneys for Jamie Spears did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment Tuesday.

Be good to one another,

Alexa

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