If Roe falls, some fear repercussions for reproductive care

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and LINDSEY TANNER

May 23, 2022


 Margot Riphagen of New Orleans, wears a birth control pill costume as she protests in front of the Supreme Court in Washington on March 25, 2014. In 2022, a leaked draft opinion indicating U.S. Supreme Court justices are poised to overturn the decision that legalized abortion nationwide in the U.S. is raising fears that restrictions on contraception could follow. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

If the Supreme Court follows through on overturning Roe v. Wade, abortion likely will be banned or greatly restricted in about half the U.S. states. But experts and advocates fear repercussions could reach even further, affecting care for women who miscarry, couples seeking fertility treatments and access to some forms of contraception.

Many conservatives insist they are only interested in curtailing abortion, and legislation passed so far often has exceptions for other reproductive care. But rumblings from some in the GOP have experts concerned, and laws banning abortion could also have unintended side effects.

“The rhetoric has been really increasing over the last several years,” said Mara Gandal-Powers, the director of birth control access at the National Women’s Law Center. “There’s definitely a domino effect which I think people are really starting to wake up to and see this is how far it could go.”

If Roe is overturned, as suggested by a leaked draft opinion, states will set their own abortion laws, and conservative lawmakers are already passing a steady stream of deeply restrictive regulations. Oklahoma lawmakers, for example, passed legislation Thursday banning abortion at conception, the strictest in the nation.

Although that bill has some exceptions, it signals a direction that is deeply worrisome for many doctors.

“I truly think the people writing these laws either have no concept of the broad implications or do not care about how this impacts so many aspects of women’s health care,″ said Dr. Kristyn Brandi, a New Jersey OB-GYN who provides abortion care.

“In medicine, you are not considered pregnant until this fertilized egg is implanted into the uterus — which happens after fertilization,″ Brandi said. She said it is unclear whether doctors performing infertility treatments would be in violation of the law if they dispose of extra fertilized eggs. The Oklahoma measure “is not based in science and is incredibly confusing and frustrating for medical professionals trying to provide evidence based care.″

The Roe decision was based on a constitutional right to privacy — and the decision leaned on another landmark case eight years earlier that gave married couples the right to birth control, Griswold v. Connecticut.

Reliable birth control is now a feature of life for millions of Americans, but in March U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee recorded a video message naming the Griswold decision as “constitutionally unsound.” She’s not proposing restrictions on birth control but hasn’t commented further to clarify what she meant.

Other conservatives have conflated emergency contraception, often known as the morning-after pill, with abortion. In Idaho, for example, it was prohibited at school-based health clinics last year under a law banning public funding for “abortion related services.”

Along with long-acting birth control devices called IUDs, emergency contraception has been been attacked by abortion foes who believe life begins when an egg is fertilized.

But those pills have no effect once a pregnancy is established, after implantation in the womb, Brandi said.

“You can take Plan B all you want when you’re pregnant. It will not do anything to your pregnancy,” she said.

Emergency contraceptive pills like Plan B and IUDs may also prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb, but experts say the science on that isn’t clear. It is believed they mostly work by blocking fertilization.

Political attempts to block access to intrauterine devices and other birth control “would be consistent with the pattern that we’re seeing right now,” said Dr. Jennifer Kerns, an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco who also provides abortion care. “Many of us are very concerned that that’s kind of the next up on the chopping block.’’

In Missouri last year, for example, there was a failed effort to prevent IUDs and emergency contraception from being paid for by Medicaid. But in Tennessee, which just passed harsh penalties for providing abortion medication, Republican Senate Speaker Randy McNally pushed back on any suggestion that contraception could be in the crosshairs.

“Contraception and abortion are not the same thing. One is a responsible way to prevent pregnancy. The other ends a human life. It is a flagrant attempt to change the conversation and it won’t work,” spokesman Adam Kleinheider said in a statement.

The governor of Mississippi, one of 13 states that will immediately ban abortion if Roe is overturned, wouldn’t say whether he’d sign a hypothetical birth-control ban when asked on “Meet the Press.” Gov. Tate Reeves later clarified on Twitter: “I’m not interested in banning contraceptives.”

But doctors also worry other forms of reproductive care, like treating ectopic pregnancies, could be targeted. These occur when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often in a fallopian tube. They are often life-threatening medical emergencies because the fragile tube can rupture, causing massive internal bleeding.

In 2019, an Ohio Republican proposed a measure that would have compelled doctors to try transplanting ectopic pregnancies into the uterus or allowing insurers to cover the hypothetical procedure, which is considered medically impossible.

After Texas banned abortion after six weeks, Kerns said colleagues there have told of patients with ectopic pregnancies being transferred out of state for treatment, putting their health at risk.

Physicians may even become hesitant to treat miscarriage, said Brandi, the New Jersey OB-GYN.

Women often miscarry alone, early in pregnancy, with no need for medical assistance. For others, it involves heavy prolonged bleeding and treatment is exactly the same as abortion — the same pills or procedure. Doctors in states that outlaw abortion would fear repercussions for treating miscarriages, Brandi said. Most end safely but infection is a risk, she said.

Plus, Brandi added, it can take eight weeks for someone “once they’ve diagnosed with a miscarriage to actually pass the pregnancy” without intervention. That can be traumatic, particularly for women who wanted to be pregnant.

Roxanne Kelly, a mental health specialist in Arkansas, has a family history of miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. Knowing she’s at high risk, she shudders hearing politicians equate treatment for both with abortion.

“Instead of receiving medical care, … I would be treated potentially as a murderer,” Kelly said. She shared her fears with her husband recently, and he “immediately offered to get a vasectomy,” saying “it’s reversible and keeps you safe,” Kelly said.

Meanwhile, some states still have abortion bans on the books that date back to the 1800s. If Roe is overturned, those bans with vague definitions of abortion could snap back into effect.

“Some states don’t say what abortion is; they just say abortion is a crime,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at University of California, Davis. “There’s a history of defining abortion more broadly to include steps in IVF or some forms of contraception.”

The Supreme Court isn’t expected to issue its final ruling until June or July, but some states are already considering going beyond banning abortion. Lawmakers in Louisiana considered a proposal to make it a homicide — a plan the governor said could criminalize some types of contraception and parts of the in vitro fertilization process.

The legislation stalled, but it could signal future tactics.

Oklahoma passed a series of strict new anti-abortion measures after seeing abortions spike as a ban in nearby Texas sent women to surrounding states. Legislation passed Thursday and set to be signed by the governor has exceptions for ectopic pregnancies — despite opposition from at least one lawmaker — and contraception, too, but not a specific exception for in vitro fertilization.

The legislation, which is enforced through civil lawsuits similar to the Texas ban, would “provide strong, additional protection of the life of unborn children in Oklahoma,” Republican sponsor Rep. Wendi Stearman said in a statement.

A line describing an “unborn child” as one at any stage of gestation means it likely would not apply to embryos fertilized in a lab, leading some fertility doctors to say this bill would have little effect on people seeking IVF, but it could still apply to the selective reduction process sometimes used to remove a fetus from a woman’s womb if fertility treatments result in multiple pregnancies, said Seema Mohapatra, health law and bioethics professor at SMU Dedman School of Law.

“I think it is very reasonable to be fearful of what comes next,” Mohapatra said. “At what point does your reproductive decision making, even for people that are really, really desperately wanting a child, become constrained?”

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Associated Press writer Kimberlee Kruesi in Tennessee contributed to this report.

Burn-proof edition of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ up for auction

By HILLEL ITALIE

 Author Margaret Atwood attends the Glamour Women of the Year Awards in New York on Nov. 11, 2019. On Monday night, during PEN America’s annual gala, Atwood and Penguin Random House announced that a one-off, unburnable edition of “The Handmaid’s Tale” would be auctioned through Sotheby’s New York. 

(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — Margaret Atwood has imagined apocalyptic disaster, Dystopian government and an author faking her own death. But until recently she had spared herself the nightmare of trying to burn one of her own books.

With a flamethrower, no less.

She failed, and that was the point.

On Monday night, timed for PEN America’s annual gala, Atwood and Penguin Random House announced that a one-off, unburnable edition of “The Handmaid’s Tale” would be auctioned through Sotheby’s New York. They launched the initiative with a brief video that shows Atwood attempting in vain to incinerate her classic novel about a totalitarian patriarchy, the Republic of Gilead. Proceeds will be donated to PEN, which advocates for free expression around the world.

“In the category of things you never expected, this is one of them,” she said in a telephone interview.

“To see her classic novel about the dangers of oppression reborn in this innovative, unburnable edition is a timely reminder of what’s at stake in the battle against censorship,” Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, said in a statement.

The fireproof narrative is a joint project among PEN, Atwood, Penguin Random House and two companies based in Toronto, where Atwood is a longtime resident: the Rethink creative agency and The Gas Company Inc., a graphic arts and bookbinding specialty studio.

Rethink’s Robbie Percy said that he and fellow creative director Caroline Friesen came up with the idea. Late last year, they had heard about a Texas legislator who listed hundreds of works for potential banning from school libraries: Percy and Friesen wondered if it were possible to make a book protected from the most harrowing censorship. They soon agreed on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which came out in the 1980s and has had renewed attention over the past few years, beginning with the political rise and unexpected presidency of Donald Trump and continuing with the current surge of book bannings.

“We thought an unburnable copy of ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ could serve as a symbol,” he said.

Percy and Friesen spoke with Atwood’s publishers in Canada and the U.S. — both divisions of Penguin Random House — and got in touch with the author. They then contacted Gaslight, which has worked on numerous commissioned texts, including some for PEN.

The Gas Company’s principal owner, Doug Laxdal, told the AP that instead of paper, he and his colleagues used Cinefoil, a specially treated aluminum product. The 384-page text, which can be read like an ordinary novel, took more than two months to complete. The Gas Company needed days just to print out the manuscript; the Cinefoil sheets were so thin that some would fall through cracks in the printer and become damaged beyond repair. The manuscript was then sewed together by hand, using nickel copper wire.

“The only way you could destroy that book is with a shredder,” Laxdal says. “Otherwise, it will last for a very long time.”

Atwood told the AP that she was was immediately interested in the special edition, and in making the video. She was a teenager in the 1950s, when Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” was published, and holds vivid memories of the novel’s futuristic setting, in which books are reduced to ashes.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” has never been burned, as far as Atwood knows, but has often been subjected to bans or attempted bans. Atwood remembers a 2006 effort in one Texas high school district, when the superintendent called her book “sexually explicit and offensive to Christians,” that ended when students successfully fought back. In 2021, “The Handmaid’s Tale” was pulled by schools in Texas and Kansas.

The novel has sold millions of copies and its impact is not just through words, but images, amplified by the award-winning Hulu adaptation starring Elisabeth Moss. Advocates worldwide for women’s rights have dressed in the puritanical caped robes Atwood devised for her story. Most recently, some women in handmaid outfits marched to protest the Supreme Court’s expected overturning this year of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

“It’s an unforgettable visual metaphor,” Atwood said. “That’s why people in the middle ages put coats of arms on their armor, and had recognizable flags. That way you can visualize them and know who’s standing for what.”

South Asia’s intense heat wave a ‘sign of things to come’

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL

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A woman covers her face with a scarf to protect from heat wave rides through a dust storm in Ahmedabad, India, Saturday, May 21, 2022. The intense heat wave sweeping through South Asia was made more likely due to climate change and it is a sign of things to come. An analysis by international scientists said that this heat wave was made 30-times more likely because of climate change, and future warming would make heat waves more common and hotter in the future.

 (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)


NEW DELHI (AP) — The devastating heat wave that has baked India and Pakistan in recent months was made more likely by climate change and is a glimpse of the region’s future, international scientists said in a study released Monday.

The World Weather Attribution group analyzed historical weather data that suggested early, long heat waves that impact a massive geographical area are rare, once-a-century events. But the current level of global warming, caused by human-caused climate change, has made those heat waves 30 times more likely.

If global heating increases to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) more than pre-industrial levels, then heat waves like this could occur twice in a century and up to once every five years, said Arpita Mondal, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, who was part of the study.

“This is a sign of things to come,” Mondal said.

The results are conservative: An analysis published last week by the United Kingdom’s Meteorological Office said the heat wave was probably made 100 times more likely by climate change, with such scorching temperatures likely to reoccur every three years.

The World Weather Attribution analysis is different as it is trying to calculate how specific aspects of the heat wave, such as the length and the region impacted, were made more likely by global warming. “The real result is probably somewhere between ours and the (U.K.) Met Office result for how much climate change increased this event,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at the Imperial College of London, who was also a part of the study.

What is certain, though, is the devastation the heat wave has wreaked. Indian cities and Pakistan consistently saw temperatures above 45C (113F) in the past weeks. In Pakistan, scorching temperatures over 50C (122F) were recorded in some places like Jacobabad and Dadu. Parts of the Indian capital New Delhi saw temperatures reaching 49C (120F) this month.

India sweltered through the hottest March in the country since records began in 1901 and April was the warmest on record in Pakistan and parts of India. The effects have been cascading and widespread: A glacier burst in Pakistan, sending floods downstream; the early heat scorched wheat crops in India, forcing it to ban exports to nations reeling from food shortages due to Russia’s war in Ukraine; it also resulted in an early spike in electricity demand in India that depleted coal reserves, resulting in acute power shortages affecting millions.

Then there is the impact on human health. At least 90 people have died in the two nations, but the region’s insufficient death registration means that this is likely an undercount. South Asia is the most affected by heat stress, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of a dataset published Columbia University’s climate school. India alone is home to more than a third of the world’s population that lives in areas where extreme heat is rising.

Experts agree the heat wave underscores the need for the world to not just combat climate change by cutting down greenhouse gas emissions, but to also adapt to its harmful impacts as quickly as possible. Children and the elderly are most at risk from heat stress, but its impact is also inordinately bigger for the poor who may not have access to cooling or water and often live in crowded slums that are hotter than leafier, wealthier neighborhoods.



Rahman Ali, 42, a ragpicker in an eastern suburb of the Indian capital New Delhi earns less than $3 a day by collecting waste from people’s homes and sorting it to salvage whatever can be sold. It’s backbreaking work and his tin-roofed home in the crowded slum offers little respite from the heat.

“What can we do? If I don’t work...we won’t eat,” said the father of two.

Some Indian cities have tried to find solutions. The western city of Ahmedabad was the first in South Asia to design a heat wave plan for its population of over 8.4 million, all the way back in 2013. The plan includes an early warning system that tells health workers and residents to prepare for heat waves, empowers administrations to keep parks open so that people can shade and provides information to schools so they’re able to tweak their schedules.

The city has also been trying to “cool” roofs by experimenting with various materials absorb heat differently. Their aim is to build roofs that’ll reflect the sun and bring down indoor temperatures by using white, reflective paint or cheaper materials like dried grass, said Dr. Dileep Mavalankar, who heads the Indian Institute of Public Health in western Indian city Gandhinagar and helped design the 2013 plan.

Most Indian cities are less prepared and India’s federal government is now working with 130 cities in 23 heat wave-prone states for them to develop similar plans. Earlier this month, the federal government also asked states to sensitize health workers on managing heat-related illnesses and ensure that ice packs, oral rehydration salts, and cooling appliances in hospitals were available.

But Mavalankar, who wasn’t part of the study, pointed to the lack of government warnings in newspapers or TV for most Indian cities and said that local administrations had just not “woken up to the heat.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

More turn to UK food banks as food and fuel bills soar

By SYLVIA HUI

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Local resident Dave sits at the Community Food Hub in London, Wednesday, May 4, 2022. Across Britain, food banks and community food hubs that helped struggling families, older people and the homeless during the pandemic are now seeing soaring demand. The cost of food and fuel in the U.K. has risen sharply since late last year, with inflation reaching the highest level in 40 years. 

(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)


LONDON (AP) — For many struggling families, older people and the homeless, Michelle Dornelly’s food hub in east London has been a lifeline. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Britain, she has been collecting surplus groceries from supermarkets and distributing them to people who can’t afford to buy food.

While the virus threat has faded, the need for food banks in Britain has soared. Skyrocketing energy and food bills are pushing millions deeper into financial hardship, and food banks and community groups like Dornelly’s across the United Kingdom say they don’t have enough to feed the growing numbers of desperate people knocking at their doors.

“We are struggling as it is, but right now we’re in a bubbling pot. You’re getting people panicking,” she said, dishing up turkey curry and onion bhajis to serve people recently. “We used to be able to run to 4 p.m., but now by 2:30, all the food’s gone.”

Dornelly offers groceries and free hot meals every week to several dozen regulars in Hackney, an inner London borough with high rates of inequality: almost half of all children there are in poverty. Since the winter, at least 30 to 40 new people have been referred to her, she says.

The cost of food and fuel in the U.K. has risen sharply, with inflation reaching 9% in April — the highest in 40 years. The same month, millions of families saw their annual energy bills jump by 54%, amounting to an extra 700 pounds ($863) a year on average for each household. On Tuesday, Britain’s energy regulator warned that domestic energy bills could shoot up again by another 800 pounds per annum in the autumn, as Russia’s war in Ukraine and rebounding demand after the pandemic push oil and natural gas prices higher.

Food businesses have had to pass on higher costs to shoppers, who already have less in their pockets because pay is failing to keep up with price increases. Those on low incomes and dependent on state welfare have been hit hardest. In October, Britain’s government stopped paying an extra 20-pound ($25) per week benefit payment that was introduced during the pandemic.

Other parts of the world are struggling, too, as inflation bites. Europe has seen surging consumer prices, causing sticker shock at the grocery store. In the U.S., food banks say rising food and gas prices and overall inflation are intensifying demand for their support, while their labor and distribution costs are climbing and donations are slowing.

“I suppose it’s the way life is going. But it shouldn’t be going so drastically,” said Dave Anderson, one of Dornelly’s regulars.

The 62-year-old hasn’t been able to work or take care of himself since he had heart surgery and was left with no electricity or gas at home until volunteers found him. The 118 pounds ($145) of benefits he gets every two weeks don’t go far.

“Me, I’ve not even looked at my bills because I think I’d want to sit there and cry,” Dornelly said. “I don’t understand why the politicians are allowing this to happen.”

Things are expected to worsen in coming months. The Bank of England predicts inflation could hit 10% by the fall, and its governor, Andrew Bailey, has warned of a “very real income shock” caused by energy prices and an “apocalyptic” rise in food prices due to the war in Ukraine.

A recent report from the International Monetary Fund said the U.K. is expected to be the slowest-growing economy out of the Group of Seven leading democracies in 2023 as the war sets back the global economic recovery from the pandemic.

“All of our organizations are reaching out to us saying, ‘We need more food,’ more families are approaching us. The people we’re seeing have got even less to make ends meet,” said Rachel Ledwith, head of community engagement at the Felix Project, a charity that redistributes surplus groceries from the food industry to about 1,000 charities and schools across London.

It delivered enough parcels to make 30 million meals last year, and its kitchen produces thousands of meals — like broccoli soup made from the stems — every day. But that’s nowhere near enough.

“I think we’re seeing between 25% to 50% increase in demand — so if an organization was supporting 50 people, they’re now seeing closer to 75,” Ledwith said. “It’s a real pressure — there’s still a huge amount of need out there in London. We still have a wait list of several hundred organizations that have asked for food that we haven’t yet got the ability to take on.”

The picture is similar across Britain.

The Trussell Trust, which runs more than half of all U.K. food banks, said last winter was its busiest outside of 2020 — the height of the pandemic. The charity said its food banks provided more than 2.1 million food parcels in the U.K. in the past year, 14% more than the same period in 2019. Of those, 830,000 were for children.

The Food Foundation, another charity, said a recent survey showed that around one in seven adults said they or someone they live with have skipped meals, eaten smaller portions or gone hungry all day because they couldn’t afford food.

“The situation is rapidly turning from an economic crisis to a health crisis,” said Anne Taylor, the charity’s director. “The government needs to realize the boat is sinking for many families, and it needs to be fixed. Bailing out with emergency food parcels is not going to work.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government has been heavily criticized for not doing enough. Despite the cost-of-living crisis dominating political debates and recent local elections, the government didn’t feature any new support measures in its annual legislative agenda.

Dornelly fears the crisis will really start to bite when children can’t access free meals during the summer break and later when it gets cold.

“What happens in the summer holidays, when you’ve got five screaming children at home? You couldn’t afford to feed them anyway, so what are you going to do when the gas and electric runs out and you have no food?” she said. “That’s when I think we’re going to see the spike.”

Economy bigger priority than punishing Russia: AP-NORC poll
By NOMAAN MERCHANT and HANNAH FINGERHUT

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High gas prices are seen in front of a medical billboard on May 11, 2022, in Milwaukee. Americans are becoming less supportive of punishing Russia for launching its invasion of Ukraine if it comes at the expense of the U.S. economy, a sign of rising anxiety over inflation and other challenges. That's according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are becoming less supportive of punishing Russia for launching its invasion of Ukraine if it comes at the expense of the U.S. economy, a sign of rising anxiety over inflation and other challenges, according to a new poll.

While broad support for U.S. sanctions has not faltered, the balance of opinion on prioritizing sanctions over the economy has shifted, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Now 45% of U.S. adults say the nation’s bigger priority should be sanctioning Russia as effectively as possible, while slightly more — 51% — say it should be limiting damage to the U.S. economy.

In April, those figures were exactly reversed. In March, shortly after Russia attacked Ukraine, a clear majority — 55% — said the bigger priority should be sanctioning Russia as effectively as possible.

The shifts in opinion reflect how rising prices are biting into American households — surging costs for gas, groceries, and other commodities have strained budgets for millions of people — and perhaps limiting their willingness to support Ukraine financially. That may be a troubling sign for President Joe Biden, who on Saturday approved an additional $40 billion in funding to help Ukraine including both weapons and financial assistance. The poll shows low faith in him to handle the situation, and an overall approval rating that hit the lowest point of his presidency.

“We’re killing ourselves,” said Jeanette Ellis-Carter, a retired accountant who lives with her husband in Cincinnati, Ohio. “We can help other people, but in helping other people, we have to know how to help ourselves. And we’re not doing that.”

Ellis-Carter, 70, noted that annual inflation topping 8% would erase any cost-of-living adjustment for retirees, especially with the rising costs of health care and food. She continues to do accounting work but has lost small-business clients who no longer can afford to hire her.

The poll shows wide majorities of U.S. adults continue to favor imposing sanctions on Russia, banning oil imported from Russia and providing weapons to Ukraine. And most U.S. adults continue to say the U.S. should have a role in the war between Russia and Ukraine: 32% say the U.S. should have a major role in the conflict, while 49% say it should have a minor role.

But there’s muted support for sending funds directly to Ukraine. Forty-four percent of Americans say they favor sending funds, while 32% are opposed and 23% are neither in favor nor opposed.

An aerial view of a residential area destroyed by Russian shelling in Irpin close to Kyiv, Ukraine, May 21, 2022.Americans are becoming less supportive of punishing Russia for launching its invasion of Ukraine if it comes at the expense of the U.S. economy, a sign of rising anxiety over inflation and other challenges. That's according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

The new poll shows just 21% of Americans say they have “a great deal of confidence” in Biden’s ability to handle the situation in Ukraine; 39% say they have some confidence and 39% say they have hardly any.

“Sometimes we get involved in things that we really shouldn’t, and it’s going to make things worse,” said Angelica Christensen, a 33-year-old from Ithaca, New York. “We need to focus right now on building up our economy.”

The U.S. and European allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia, cutting off major banks from global transactions and going directly after Russian President Vladimir Putin, top leaders, and their families. The U.S. also banned the importation of Russian oil.

While Russian oil makes up a small part of America’s total energy imports, the ban comes as gas prices have surged in recent months, hitting $4.71 per gallon, or $1.61 higher than a year ago. Supply chain problems and increased economic demand as COVID-19 restrictions ease have contributed to rising prices. Biden and many Democrats have accused gas companies of price gouging, while Republicans say the White House should support increased domestic oil and natural gas drilling.

Overall, 45% of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the U.S. relationship with Russia, while 54% disapprove. That’s held steady each month since the conflict began. Seventy-three percent of Democrats and 15% of Republicans approve.

Shantha Bunyan, a 43-year-old from Loveland, Colorado, said she still supports Biden and believes he’s performed better than former President Donald Trump. She’s heard jokes that the most expensive place to visit in town is the local gas station. But Bunyan, who spent years traveling abroad before the pandemic began and lived for a month in Moscow, said she believes the U.S. has to continue to sacrifice to support Ukraine’s resistance.

“We seem to think that everything that goes on in the world isn’t going to affect us and that we live in some sort of a bubble,” she said. “It seems to me that anything that happens in the rest of the world is going to affect us. Unless we do something proactive, our economy is going to be affected anyway.”

But Jackie Perry, a 62-year-old from Centre, Alabama, said while she sympathized with Ukrainians and believes Russia was unjustified in launching its invasion, the White House needed to focus more on the economy. She has had to cut back on driving because gas is too expensive.

“They don’t have to worry about the price of gas,” she said about the Biden administration. “If they were more interested in the people that they’re supposed to be serving, our gas wouldn’t be that high.”

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,172 adults was conducted May 12-16 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

Courts stymie abortion bans in Iowa, other GOP-led states

CAN'T RELY ON THEM
By THOMAS BEAUMONT and DAVID PITT

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Marissa Messinger, of Lake View, Iowa, center, holds a sign during a rally to protest recent abortion bans, May 21, 2019, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. With a devoutly anti-abortion Republican governor and large GOP legislative majorities, Iowa would seem poised to easily ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)


DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — With a staunch anti-abortion Republican governor and large GOP legislative majorities, Iowa would seem poised to ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.

There’s just one catch: a 2018 Iowa Supreme Court ruling that established the right to abortion under the state constitution.

“I don’t know if the people of Iowa know that things aren’t going to change immediately if Roe. v. Wade is overturned,” said state Rep. Sandy Salmon, a Republican and farm manager from northeast Iowa who has made abortion restrictions a cornerstone of her five legislative terms.

Supreme courts in a handful of states, including others controlled by Republicans, have recognized the right to abortion. But in no state is the issue more immediate than Iowa, where Republicans are calling for a state high court with new, conservative justices to reverse a decision made just four years ago.

The Iowa court’s decision, due within weeks, is an example of the complexities that loom in states should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn its 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Specifically, it highlights the inevitable confrontation between new abortion bans being prepared in anticipation of Roe’s reversal and state constitutions.

“There are states where this is to some extent unknown and an issue that state courts will likely have to confront,” said Helene Krasnof, vice president of public policy, litigation and law for abortion rights advocates Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “But this is an issue that’s present in Iowa in this very moment.”

The Iowa Supreme Court decision that’s under consideration struck down a 2017 law signed by then-Gov. Terry Branstad requiring a woman to wait 72 hours before receiving an abortion. The court ruled 5-2 that an abortion is a fundamental right protected by the state constitution’s guarantee of liberty.

“Autonomy and dominion over one’s body go to the very heart of what it means to be free,” wrote then-Chief Justice Mark Cady, who died in 2019. “Implicit in the concept of ordered liberty is the ability to decide whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy.”

Since that decision, Branstad’s successor, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, has signed other restrictions, including outlawing abortion once cardiac activity is detected in the embryo and requiring a 24-hour waiting period. Both measures were struck down in state district court. Reynolds appealed the waiting-period decision to the Iowa Supreme Court last year.

In the years since Cady’s opinion, Reynolds has appointed four of the court’s seven members. The Republican-controlled Legislature also gave her more control over the process of selecting the panel that recommends potential nominees.

Drake University Law School professor Sally Frank said if the court were to overturn a right established only four years ago, it “would give an even more political look to a decision here than the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Yet abortion opponents argued that court rulings in a half-dozen states, including Iowa, are examples of laws inappropriately established by judges rather than elected officials.

“This case presents the opportunity for the Iowa Supreme Court to return the issue back to the people to decide through their elected representatives in the Legislature,” said Mallory Carroll, a spokeswoman for the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List.

Polls indicate support for keeping abortion legal. The Des Moines Register Iowa Poll found in September that 57% supported keeping abortion legal in most or all cases, compared with 38% who said it should be illegal in most or all cases. According to AP VoteCast, a 2020 survey of the electorate, 65% of Iowa voters said the U.S. Supreme Court should leave Roe v. Wade as it is, while a third said it should be overturned.

Reynolds has said she is “proud of the legislation she signed in 2018,” including the ban on abortions once cardiac activity is detected, as early as six weeks and before many women know they are pregnant. While the measure included exceptions to protect the life of the mother and for pregnancies that are the result of incest or rape, Reynolds recently declined to endorse any exceptions.

“I’m not going to set any parameters,” she told reporters last week. “We have a ruling before the Iowa Supreme Court and we’re going to wait and see what they do, and that actually will affect what our next steps are moving forward.”

Supreme courts in Alaska, Florida, Kansas, Montana and Minnesota have ruled that their constitutions protect the right to abortion. Among them, Republicans hold legislative majorities and the governorships in Florida and Montana.

In Montana and Florida, challenges to abortion restrictions are before those states’ supreme courts.

Majority Republicans in the Kansas Legislature are seeking to invalidate a 2019 state Supreme Court decision that declared access to abortion a “fundamental right” with a referendum on the August primary ballot to amend the state constitution.

Iowa Republicans also are pursuing a constitutional amendment that specifies the state constitution does not recognize, grant, or secure a right to abortion. The amendment could not stop the Legislature from enacting a statutory right to abortion, but would present an obstacle to any court weighing what the state would be required to enforce.

The measure needs a second approval in the Legislature and will likely come up next year, Salmon, the GOP state lawmaker, said. If approved it would go before voters, probably in 2024.

It’s the removal of the abortion guarantee in the 2018 court ruling that would clear the way for lawmakers to ban the procedure, Salmon’s ultimate goal.

“That means that abortion would not be a service offered in this state,” Salmon said.

___

Associated Press polling reporter Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this story.

Environmentalists meet in South Africa to stem plastic waste

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME

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A waste picker rummages through garbage, at a dumping site in Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, May 20, 2022. Environmental activists are gathering in South Africa this week to press governments and businesses to reduce the production of plastic because it is harming the continent's environment. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Environmental activists are meeting in South Africa this week to press governments and businesses to reduce the production of plastic because it is harming the continent’s environment.

The conference, “Towards Zero Plastics to the Seas of Africa,” being held in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), South Africa, through Friday brings together academics and experts on the plastics industry and its effects on the continent, say organizers.

The participants are focusing on the actions needed to stop plastics from ruining Africa’s land and seas, say the organizers, the African Marine Waste Network. The conference follows the United Nations Environmental Assembly’s resolution for the development of a legally binding treaty on plastic waste by 2024.

Despite a growing recycling industry, plastic waste is piling up in Africa’s landfill sites, clogging stormwater drainage systems and polluting rivers and oceans.

Africa has an average waste collection rate of 55% but only 4% of it is recycled, according to a report by the U.N. and the Center for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa.

This is way below the African Union’s target for the continent’s cities to recycle at least 50% of their waste by next year.

In Johannesburg — South Africa’s most populous city with more than 6 million people — the landfill sites are fast reaching capacity. The municipality collects up to 40,000 tons of general waste including plastic every month, according to its waste management agency Pikitup.

The city’s four landfill sites will be full in three years, forcing them to find more landfill sites, officials say.

“Plastic is not biodegradable ... so it lives for a very long time. It eats up our landfill space and is very difficult to compact,” said Pikitup spokesman Muzi Mkhwanazi.

In 2018 the city made it mandatory for residents to separate plastic from other waste, but not many are practicing that.

Johannesburg’s biggest landfill site in Turffontein is a hive of activity as waste trucks drop off garbage and waste pickers spread themselves across the area to pluck out plastics, cardboard, bottles and wood that can be sold to recyclers. The rest is crushed and then covered by new deliveries of waste.

Thousands of freelance waste pickers work on the streets of the sprawling metropolis as well as at the landfill site. They sort various types of garbage into what they can sell to recyclers in order to eke out a living. Others have paid employment at recycling centers.

Agnes Hlungwani says she has been supporting her family by sorting plastic waste at the Whole Earth Recycling plant. When her husband died in 2006 sorting waste was one of the only types of work she could get, she said.

“I sent my children to school and I have supported myself. My husband is no longer around, but the children are grown up now, all because of this job,” said Hlungwani.

Waste campaigner Musa Chamane told The Associated Press that the conference is necessary to press decision-makers in businesses, governments and municipalities to reduce plastic waste.

Whole Earth Recycling manager Carmen Jordaan said campaigns are needed to press industries and ordinary residents to reduce plastic waste.

“Although there is sorting that takes place at the landfill, it is not ideal as it is mixed with food waste, medical waste and that’s not hygienic,” she said. “If we can stop using non-recyclable plastics in our packaging material and encourage more people to start recycling we will have a better rate of recycling.”

Shell safety consultant quits over 'double-talk on climate'


Shell safety consultant resigns over oil company's plans to expand fossil fuel extraction. 

File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

May 23 (UPI) -- A Shell safety consultant has resigned over what she calls the oil company's "extreme harms" to the environment and "disregard for climate change risks."

Caroline Dennett submitted her resignation to Shell executives and 1,400 employees Monday in an email and public video, accusing the U.S. company of "failing on a massive planetary scale" and blasting the oil giant's plans to expand fossil fuel extraction.

"Today I'm quitting because of Shell's double talk on climate," Dennett said in her video. "Shell's stated safety ambition is to 'do no harm', 'Goal Zero' they call it and it sounds honorable. But they are completely failing on it."

Dennett worked as a senior safety consultant with Shell for 11 years. She specializes in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries, and started working with Shell after BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

"I can no longer work for a company that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse," Dennett said.

The former Shell consultant called the fossil fuel industry "the past" and urged other workers to leave the industry.

"If you can find a way out, then please walk away while there's still time," she said.

The resignation comes one day before Shell's annual general meeting in London. Shell is expected to face scrutiny Tuesday from activists who want the company's policies to line up with the Paris climate accord.

Last year, Shell released a net-zero strategy, but still plans to explore new fossil fuel projects until 2025. Shell responded to Dennett's comments by saying it plans to hit all of its targets by 2050.

"We're already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, although the world will still need oil and gas for decades to come in sectors that can't be easily decarbonized," the company said.

More liver transplants were from donors who overdosed during pandemic

IF CHINA DID THIS THE EPOCH TIMES WOULD HAVE THEIR HAIR ON FIRE

By HealthDay News

The percentage of livers from donors who died of overdoses rose by 26% -- from about 15% to just over 18% -- from the pre-COVID-19 period to the COVID-19 period

. Photo by Sasint/Pixabay

Organs from donors who died of drug overdoses helped keep the number of U.S. liver transplants steady during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study finds.

"When the pandemic began, we saw no decline in liver transplants, which seemed surprising since many surgeries were canceled or postponed," said lead author Peter Lymberopoulos, a fourth-year medical student at St. George's University in Grenada.

"Sadly, a key reason seems to be a surge of organ donors who died from drug overdose," he said in an American Gastroenterological Association news release.

Drug overdoses represent a public health crisis in the United States. Last year, more than 107,600 Americans died from drug overdoses, a record number, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said recently.

RELATED Organ transplants from donors who had COVID-19 are safe, study shows

The researchers used the U.S. organ donation registry of the United Network for Organ Sharing for the study. They analyzed data on donors of all solid organ transplants, including livers, during the 14 months before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (Jan. 1, 2019 to Feb. 29, 2020) and the 14 months after it began (May 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021).

"Among liver transplants, we found that the number of overdose donors rose at a surprising rate in the pandemic's first 14 months, compared to the previous 14 months," Lymberopoulos said.

"Organ transplants are experiencing success, but it often comes at a cost. In many cases, that 

The percentage of livers from donors who died of overdoses rose by 26% -- from about 15% to just over 18% -- from the pre-COVID period to the COVID-19 period. The use of drug overdose donors for all solid organ transplants increased by almost a third, from about 14% to a little over 17%.

Transplants that occurred in March and April 2020 were excluded from the study due to COVID-related disruptions at hospitals in those months.

The study authors plan to investigate whether the trend continued into the second year of the pandemic.

Lymberopoulos presented the findings Sunday at the American Gastroenterological Association's Digestive Disease Week meeting, in San Diego. Research presented at meetings is usually considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Many overdose victims are young and have few or no other health conditions, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, which would affect the chances of transplant success.

More information

There's more on liver transplants at the American Liver Foundation.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Raccoon gets stuck head-first in California home's roof

The Santa Cruz Animal Shelter in California said a local resident called the Wildlife Emergency Services number to report a raccoon had chewed a hole in their roof and got stuck while trying to climb head-first through the opening. Photo courtesy of the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter/Facebook

May 24 (UPI) -- A California animal shelter helped a local homeowner with an unusual problem: a raccoon with its head stuck through a hole in the roof.

The Santa Cruz Animal Shelter said in a Facebook post that a local resident called the Wildlife Emergency Services number on Monday to report a raccoon had chewed a hole in their roof and became stuck while trying to climb through the opening.

"Knowing that time was critical, they instructed the citizen how to push the raccoon through the hole so it wouldn't suffocate," the post said.

The shelter said the raccoon turned out to be a mother and was reunited with her babies nearby.

The post said Wildlife Emergency Services personnel are now helping the homeowner "set up a repellent barrier to safely and humanely have mama and her kids move along to a more appropriate home."