Texas
Lawyers preparing for abortion prosecutions warn about health care, data privacy
![Lawyers preparing for abortion prosecutions warn about health care, data privacy](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/cnT9NjT9AIoZjbS5TdJkBQuKh_M=/1200x630/filters:quality(95)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/54093a24b470cd824be236191b7e3e93/Alamo%20Abortion%20Clinic%20KC%20TT%2019.jpg)
Join The Transient, our every day publication that retains readers in control on probably the most important Texas information.
A younger lady and her mom are nervously driving by way of the evening after they’re pulled over by regulation enforcement. Flashlights of their faces, the ladies are questioned about whether or not they’re heading for the border and whether or not the younger lady is perhaps pregnant, earlier than being pulled out of the automotive.
This political advert, launched forward of the 2020 election, speculated about what a post-Roe v. Wade future would possibly appear to be as Republican states sought to crack down on abortion ban violators.
Within the weeks for the reason that U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned the constitutional safety for abortion, the advert went viral, contributing to rising fears of state border checkpoints and widespread knowledge mining to trace menstruation and being pregnant outcomes.
“However I feel the truth is, the overwhelming majority of those prison instances are going to start in type of extra mundane and customary methods,” stated Emma Roth, employees lawyer at Nationwide Advocates for Pregnant Ladies.
Regardless of fears of unconstitutional authorized gambits and Massive Brother-style monitoring, legal professionals and specialists predict that a lot of what’s anticipated to unfold over the approaching months and years will look very acquainted.
Greater than 1,700 folks have confronted prison expenses over being pregnant outcomes since 1973, based on NAPW. Like a lady charged with homicide for a “self-induced abortion” in Starr County earlier this 12 months, many pregnant individuals who get caught up within the prison justice system are reported to regulation enforcement by well being care employees. Like a lady in Mississippi who was charged with homicide after a stillbirth, many individuals willingly flip over digital information which are used to incriminate them.
Reproductive justice legal professionals say they’re centered not on getting ready for a possible dystopian future just like the one introduced within the business, however on educating well being care suppliers, legal professionals and pregnant folks about what they’ll do to guard themselves proper now — with the rights they nonetheless have obtainable to them.
Criminalizing being pregnant and abortion
In January, a 26-year-old lady in rural South Texas went to Starr County Memorial Hospital for problems associated to a self-managed abortion.
A nurse on the hospital reported her to regulation enforcement, and in April, the girl was charged with homicide and imprisoned on a $500,000 bond. The district lawyer later dismissed the costs, acknowledging that Texas regulation particularly exempts somebody who has an abortion from being prosecuted for homicide.
Regardless of the authorized missteps, this case tread a really acquainted path for being pregnant criminalization.
“The commonest means {that a} prison case begins is that they’re reported by a medical supplier,” Roth stated.
Getting an unlawful abortion appears to be like very completely different in 2022 than it did in 1972: Many individuals who would have turned to surgical abortions can now have drugs discreetly mailed to their houses. There are worldwide nonprofits which have publicly flouted state and federal rules for years to offer these drugs to folks in states that limit abortion entry.
The 2-drug routine is usually secure and efficient, when taken as advisable, however there may be at all times a threat of medical problems.
Advocates fear that individuals who self-manage an abortion — or expertise a miscarriage that resembles an abortion — might not hunt down essential medical help in the event that they concern being prosecuted.
Though Texas’ abortion regulation particularly exempts pregnant sufferers, the Starr County case exemplifies the methods they’ll nonetheless get caught up within the system.
“We all know that prosecutors are going to attempt to criminally punish folks, no matter what the regulation says,” stated Farah Diaz-Tello, senior counsel at If/When/How, a reproductive justice authorized nonprofit, in an interview final month. “For us to have the ability to resist this criminalization, you will need to observe that it’s illegal criminalization. Merely being an act of a prosecutor doesn’t imply that it’s the regulation.”
Pregnant folks may fear about anybody who, within the language of the regulation, “aided and abetted” or helped “furnish the means” for an abortion — pals who drove them over state strains, somebody who mailed them drugs, a health care provider who offered an ultrasound to make sure they accomplished the abortion.
“Individuals are residing in fixed concern [because] they wouldn’t wish to do something that may jeopardize the freedom of their family members or their medical suppliers, and consequently, might keep away from essential well being care,” Roth stated.
Prosecutors in 5 Texas counties have vowed that they won’t pursue abortion-related expenses, however legislators are already discussing methods they could empower different district attorneys to deliver expenses outdoors their jurisdiction.
And Texas’ abortion legal guidelines don’t deliver solely prison penalties. The set off regulation, which fits into impact later this summer time to coincide with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, additionally has civil penalties of at the least $100,000 per abortion, and beneath a regulation generally known as Senate Invoice 8, anybody who “aids or abets” in a prohibited abortion might be sued for as much as $10,000 by any personal citizen.
Anti-abortion legal professionals have already begun submitting pre-lawsuit petitions to depose abortion suppliers and abortion funders to realize details about potential prohibited abortions, in hopes of bringing lawsuits.
Already, advocacy teams have mobilized assets for individuals who face prosecution — or concern it. If/When/How operates a authorized assist line that solutions questions and helps join folks to authorized assets round abortion entry. NAPW gives professional bono authorized illustration to people who find themselves going through criminalization over a being pregnant consequence with the slogan, “If you’re locked up since you are knocked up — name NAPW!”
Function of well being care suppliers
Advocates and legal professionals are working to arm well being care suppliers and pregnant sufferers with details about their rights.
Since Texas’ present abortion legal guidelines don’t require suppliers to report somebody they think might have undergone an unlawful abortion, suppliers who do proactively report back to regulation enforcement could also be in violation of the Well being Insurance coverage Portability and Accountability Act.
Within the wake of the Supreme Court docket ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group, the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies issued steering clarifying suppliers’ obligation beneath HIPAA, stressing the significance of “giving people confidence that their protected well being info … together with info referring to abortion and different sexual and reproductive well being care, will probably be stored personal.”
The steering makes clear that suppliers can’t speak in confidence to regulation enforcement {that a} affected person is contemplating looking for an unlawful or out-of-state abortion, or present knowledge on all abortions carried out at a facility with no courtroom order.
Roth stated this is a vital message proper now, as many well being care suppliers could also be inclined to over-report for concern of being criminalized themselves.
“They’re very involved in regards to the legal responsibility of not reporting,” Roth stated. “I hope that this steering clarifies that they need to even be involved about being present in violation of federal regulation in the event that they report when they need to not have accomplished so.”
However HIPAA doesn’t provide blanket safety to folks navigating the well being care system.
“Regulation enforcement might additionally use a courtroom order, a court-ordered warrant, subpoenas and administrative requests to compel a well being care supplier to launch a affected person’s medical information within the case of a suspected unlawful abortion,” stated Rebecca Reingold, affiliate director of the O’Neill Institute for Nationwide and International Well being Regulation. “A well being care supplier might refuse to conform however would possible face fines or penalties for doing so.”
Digital privateness
HIPAA additionally applies solely to “coated entities,” like well being care suppliers and insurers. Different well being care companies, together with well being monitoring apps, are usually not protected by HIPAA and may doubtlessly go away a path of breadcrumbs that might assist regulation enforcement establish unlawful abortions.
“There’s a variety of completely different ways in which we’re … leaving recorded footprints, each the place we go browsing, however then the actual kicker is, the place we go in the actual world along with your location monitoring,” stated Jen King, privateness and knowledge coverage fellow on the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Synthetic Intelligence.
This digital footprint trails behind every of us, documenting the place we go, what we search, who we textual content and name, and with companies like interval monitoring apps, after we menstruate — or don’t menstruate.
“Regulation enforcement can entry all of that by way of warrants and even, relying on who they’re asking, generally suppliers will simply hand that info over,” King stated.
This has led many individuals to delete their interval monitoring apps, and Democratic U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden have launched a pair of payments that may restrict the sale of well being and site knowledge collected from smartphones.
However many digital safety advocates are pushing again in opposition to the concept that the common individual utilizing an app to trace their interval goes to get caught up in a digital dragnet, at the least at this level.
“Interval trackers are usually not the first type of digital proof possible for use in abortion prosecutions at the moment,” stated Kendra Albert, a lawyer with the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard Regulation Faculty, in a Medium submit. “If monitoring your interval is beneficial to you, you don’t must cease monitoring your interval, though it’s possible you’ll select to change to an app that collects much less knowledge and shops it domestically.”
Most frequently, the path of knowledge turns into related as soon as regulation enforcement is already investigating a suspected unlawful abortion that was reported by pals, household or medical professionals.
In 2017, Latice Fisher delivered a stillborn child at her house in Mississippi; she was 35 weeks pregnant. Fisher initially advised well being care professionals that she didn’t know she was pregnant.
However when Fisher voluntarily handed her telephone over to the police, they discovered she had googled the right way to purchase abortion-inducing medicine 10 days earlier than she gave beginning. She was charged with second-degree homicide, although there was no concrete proof that she took the medicine.
After Fisher spent a number of weeks in jail, the district lawyer put the case to a second grand jury, which declined to indict her.
“What’s actually vital about that case is that the police didn’t want to hunt a warrant as a result of she really willingly handed over her telephone,” Roth stated. “By no means, ever hand your telephone over to regulation enforcement in the event that they don’t have a warrant, and in addition don’t speak to regulation enforcement with out your lawyer current.”
If somebody is actively looking for out an abortion, legal professionals and digital safety specialists suggest taking precautions — utilizing a safe browser and counting on encrypted texting companies or burner telephones for communication, as a place to begin.
However for folks fearful of probably needing an abortion sooner or later, King stated, it’s tough to totally cowl your tracks on a regular basis.
“These are all fingers within the leaking dam,” King stated. “You’ll be able to attempt to plug all of them, however then you definitely’ll mainly be residing like any person who practices operational safety for a residing. That’s onerous. I don’t even do all that.”
Once you be part of us at The Texas Tribune Pageant Sept. 22-24 in downtown Austin, you’ll hear from changemakers who’re driving innovation, lawmakers who’re taking cost with new insurance policies, business leaders who’re pushing Texas ahead and so many others. See the rising speaker record and purchase tickets.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
Texas
City Councilmen address Texas Ethics Commission findings
![City Councilmen address Texas Ethics Commission findings](https://gray-kauz-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/MKHYF5PNWFDNXFCF6P5EXLI4KY.jpg?auth=dca68a5d71827a71406148cf7d486674c20fbc37472be048e2d5dfd7b19fe559&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) – After five months of looking into complaints made against Wichita Falls City Council members in January, the Texas Ethics Commission has resolved the issue.
Tim Short, Tom Taylor, Jeff Browning, and Mike Battaglino all have agreed to pay a $500 Civil Penalty.
Cathy Dodson, who ran for the City Council District 3 seat in last year’s general election filed the complaints to the T.E.C.
“A non-profit cannot be involved in politics, the Wichita Falls Firefighter Association couldn’t list it that would be illegal,” Cathy Dodson said.
She told crews back in January that she had sufficient evidence to prove the four men took money from the Wichita Falls Firefighter Association PAC.
After notifying the council of their finding, they released a statement:
“The PAC provided written notice of this in-kind contribution on April 21, 2024. All four of us have now corrected our reports to disclose the in-kind contributions. Our joint settlement also states that the parties neither admit or deny the findings of the fact and conclusions of law described. We have paid the small civil penalty and made the bookkeeping adjustments. As a group, we look to move forward for the betterment of the city of Wichita Falls,” City Council Members said.
The city also added, at least six other complaints to the Ethics Commission regarding the same issues were dismissed.
Copyright 2024 KAUZ. All rights reserved.
Texas
Fort Worth's Sky Elements Will Be Droning North Texas with Fourth of July Celebrations
![Fort Worth's Sky Elements Will Be Droning North Texas with Fourth of July Celebrations](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Sky-Elements-record-setting-2023-July-4th-drone-show-Photo-Sky-Elements.jpg)
A moment from Sky Elements’ record-setting 2023 July 4th drone show [Photo: Sky Elements]
Last month, the Fort Worth-based drone light show company Sky Elements put their dazzling nighttime sky skills on national TV with an appearance on “America’s Got Talent,” earning a “golden buzzer” from Simon Cowell himself.
The 400-foot-tall, 300-foot wide display in the skies outside the the show’s studio featured a rocket liftoff and an image of Cowell in the sky as a waving, space-walking astronaut, capped by the AGT logo.
“It was really patriotic,” Cowell told the Sky Elements team after the demonstration. “And I think the way you told the story, the use of music, whether you’re 3 years old, whether you’re 100 years old, I think you’re absolutely going to love that audition.”
You can watch that AGT clip here for a cool, behind-the-scenes look at how the team’s drone show takes off.
See for yourself this coming week
Or you can watch Sky Elements in action yourself all over North Texas in the next week:
Tomorrow, Saturday June 29 at Toyota Stadium, Sky Elements will give a performance during FC Dallas’ 7:30 p.m. game against FC Cincinnati.
On Wednesday July 3, Sky Elements will perform Fourth of July shows in two local cities. The first will be the Denton Independence Day celebration at Quakertown Park, with “flight times” at 9:15 p.m. and 11 p.m.
The second will be held Wednesday during day 1 of a 2-day Sparks & Stripes celebration in Irving, with a drone and fireworks show at 9:20 p.m. at Levy Event Plaza over Lake Carolyn.
First drone light show to get FAA fireworks approval
![](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Pyro-drone-show-by-Sky-Elements-Video-still-Sky-Elements.png)
“Pyro drone show” with fireworks on drones by Sky Elements [Video still: Sky Elements]
In May, Sky Elements announced that it had become “the first U.S.-based drone light show company to receive FAA approval to attach fireworks to drones.”
The company had been working on obtaining the waiver for 26 months before the FAA finally granted its approval. The FAA green light allows Sky Elements to legally attach and launch fireworks from drones during their shows, creating what they call “pyro drone shows.”
It’s not the first time Sky Elements has made history. On Fourth of July 2023, the company snagged a Guinness World Records title for the largest aerial formation of words created by drones (by using 1,002 drones). Then last December, the company broke two more Guiness World Records with a 1,499-drone show in North Richland Hills.
And when Major League Cricket held its historic opening night last July in Grand Prairie, Sky Elements was there to mark the occasion with a drone light show.
Not just all over North Texas—all over the U.S., too
The DFW shows coming next week are just a glimmer of the stunning amount of events Sky Elements is booked for across the U.S. You can check out the company’s master list of performances by going here—including a patriotically astounding amount of shows it’s doing around this year’s July 4th.
Get on the list.
Dallas Innovates, every day.
Sign up to keep your eye on what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.
Texas
Massive dust plume from Sahara Desert to bring hazy skies to Florida, Texas
![Massive dust plume from Sahara Desert to bring hazy skies to Florida, Texas](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1024/512/FOX-Model-Wide-with-Dust-Tracker.png?ve=1&tl=1)
A new tropical disturbance is now being monitored for development in the eastern Atlantic Ocean just in the wake of Invest 95L, which is on the cusp of becoming a tropical depression or Tropical Storm Beryl.
HOUSTON — A massive plume of dust from Africa’s Saharan Desert is blowing across the entire Atlantic Ocean this week, set to reach the shores of Florida and Texas in the coming days and casting a haze over typically blue skies.
The plume is currently forecast to skirt South Florida late Friday night into early Saturday morning, then push into the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend.
Eventually, the plume is forecast to move into Southeast Texas Sunday into Monday, with Corpus Christi and perhaps Houston likely to see some of the effects.
Coastal communities along the Florida Peninsula and the Gulf Coast are accustomed to seeing plumes of Saharan dust over the summer, which can impact air quality, produce colorful sunrises and sunsets, and reduce the chances of precipitation.
182 million tons of dust a year carried away from Africa
As daily triple-digit heat bakes the Saharan Desert, hot, dry air rises from the surface and carries fine particles of dust from the sands. That dust-laden air climbs to the highest reaches of the atmosphere, where winds called the Easterlies or Trade Winds (blowing from east to west) carry that dust about 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean into the Western Hemisphere in what’s known as the Saharan Air Layer (SAL).
5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE SAHARAN DUST PLUME
According to NASA, about 182 million tons of dust leave Africa every year, though that amount can vary depending on the amount of rainfall south of the Sahara region.
![FOX Model Wide with Dust Tracker](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/668/376/FOX-Model-Wide-with-Dust-Tracker.png?ve=1&tl=1)
Depending on the amount of dust being carried by the plume, air quality can be drastically affected. This means that people who have certain types of breathing problems can experience difficulty. People in the path of the plume can also experience eye, nose and throat irritation because of the fine dust particles in the air, according to WebMD.
The dry air from the hot, sandy desert also works to suppress tropical development and significant plumes of dust and dry air are common in the Atlantic during the first two and a half months of the hurricane season.
![Saharan Dust Trend](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/668/376/Saharan-Dust-Trend.png?ve=1&tl=1)
However, the current situation is a bit unusual in that there is quite a bit of tropical activity percolating in the Atlantic even with a significant dust layer.
Invest 95L and another tropical disturbance just to its east are holding positions just south of the dust layer, and are feeding off available moisture to their south to skirt the edges of the dust layer as they trek west.
However, the dust layer may become an important variable in the storms’ future development depending on their track.
-
News1 week ago
Read the Ruling by the Virginia Court of Appeals
-
News1 week ago
Tracking a Single Day at the National Domestic Violence Hotline
-
Fitness1 week ago
What's the Least Amount of Exercise I Can Get Away With?
-
News1 week ago
Supreme Court upholds law barring domestic abusers from owning guns in major Second Amendment ruling | CNN Politics
-
Politics1 week ago
Trump classified docs judge to weigh alleged 'unlawful' appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith
-
Politics1 week ago
Newsom seeks to restrict students' cellphone use in schools: 'Harming the mental health of our youth'
-
Politics1 week ago
Supreme Court upholds federal gun ban for those under domestic violence restraining orders
-
Politics1 week ago
Trump VP hopeful proves he can tap into billionaire GOP donors