Abortions to resume in North Dakota after court finds near-total ban unconstitutional
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(RALEIGH, N.C.) — Abortions are now legal in North Dakota after the state Supreme Court ruled its near-total abortion ban was unconstitutionally vague.
The ruling came as part of a lawsuit filed by physicians that asked the court to strike down the ban in its entirety. A North Dakota South Central Judicial District Court judge granted that request Thursday.
At least 21 states currently have bans or restrictions in place on abortion care. Of those states, 13 states have ceased nearly all abortion services and four states prohibit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before most women know they are pregnant.
Abortion is currently illegal in South Dakota.
Plaintiffs argued the ban was unconstitutionally vague and made it impossible to interpret the language surrounding when abortions are allowed under medical exceptions, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the lawsuit.
Physicians who violate the ban could be found guilty of a class C felony, punishable with up to five years of imprisonment, a $10,000 fine or both.
The court also found pregnant women have a fundamental right to choose an abortion before viability under the state constitution.
“The North Dakota Constitution guarantees each individual, including women, the fundamental right to make medical judgments affecting his or her bodily integrity, health, and autonomy, in consultation with a chosen health care provider free from government interference,” Judge Bruce Romanick wrote in the opinion.
(UVALDE, Texas) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel who responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, did not violate policy or the law, according to an internal CBP report released on Thursday.
However, the report found responding agents weren’t properly trained for a school shooting event and there were no clear instructions from local agencies on the ground.
CBP personnel including a tactical team from the agency responded to the shooting at the school in 2022, and they ultimately killed the shooter, but not until after a lengthy delay in the response, according to the report.
The fault of the slow response was ultimately placed on local officials who were at the school but didn’t take command of the scene, according to the report.
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the Robb Elementary School mass shooting.
“None of the first responders or CBP personnel who were in a position to take action against the assailant had access to an accurate school layout or understanding of where to locate the necessary keys for entry to critical areas of the school, which may have been mitigated by a functioning command and control system,” CBP said in a statement about the report.
Ahead of the report, CBP has taken more than half a dozen steps to address issues with its response to mass casualty events — and the lack of training before the shooting hindered the CBP response, it said.
“The training did not prepare CBP personnel for incidents in which they would be responding to a situation at a school, where an active shooter would be engaged behind a locked door, and where local authorities had not established a command and control framework. It also insufficiently covered using a ballistic shield, legal authorities, leadership responsibilities, and agency interoperability,” according to a press release from the agency.
As a result of the shooting, CBP said it has also corrected several policies. Use-of-force training materials have been distributed to agency personnel across the country, the agency is looking at acquiring more tools to respond to active shooters, and it’s also working on a plan for Congress to clarify federal authorities for responding to mass-casualty situations, according to CBP.
The inability of law enforcement to establish an “identifiable incident management or command and control protocols led to a disorganized response to the Robb Elementary School shooting,” the report found.
“No law enforcement official ever clearly established command at the school during the incident, leading to delays, inaction, and potentially further loss of life,” according to the report.
One Border Patrol agent told internal investigators they “never knew who was in command” of the scene.
At least 188 members of CBP responded to the incident, with 19% being members of the BORTAC team — the equivalent of a CBP SWAT team.
There was also no diagram of the school that was useful for the BORTAC agents to use, according to the report..
The report points to a 40-year-old Border Patrol training manual that had not been updated to accurately reflect the post-9/11 federal law enforcement apparatus under the Department of Homeland Security.
“… CBP training on active shooter response procedures did not adequately prepare responding personnel to deal with this situation,” the report states.
An ABC News graphic shows the expected path of a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. — ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Francine is churning in the Gulf and is set to strengthen to a hurricane before making landfall in Louisiana.
Francine is forecast to be a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds by Wednesday. Landfall is forecast in western Louisiana on Wednesday afternoon.
A hurricane watch has been issued in Louisiana, from Cameron to Grand Isle.
A storm surge watch is in effect from Texas to the Mississippi-Alabama border.
By Tuesday morning, Francine’s outer bands will bring heavy rain and gusty winds to Texas. The rough weather will last through the day along the coast, including Houston.
By Wednesday morning, conditions will deteriorate rapidly in southwestern Louisiana. Heavy rain and flooding is expected throughout the day.
About 5 to 8 inches of rain, with locally up to 1 foot, is forecast from Louisiana to the western Florida Panhandle through Thursday morning.
Teen believed to be armed stopped from entering Wisconsin elementary school. Via Kenosha Police Department
(KENOSHA, Wis.) — Several replica guns have been recovered from the home of a 13-year-old who allegedly planned to scare students at a Wisconsin elementary school, but was stopped from entering the building, according to police.
The 13-year-old tried to enter his former school, Roosevelt Elementary School, around 9 a.m. Thursday, carrying a backpack and duffel bag, Kenosha police said.
The teen attempted to enter through other doors, but was not able to get in, Kenosha Unified School District Superintendent Jeffrey Weiss told reporters. He then approached the front entrance and was buzzed into a vestibule area. Two school employees confronted the student, who got nervous and then fled, Weiss said.
The suspect, who was taken into custody at his home on Thursday, has been charged with one count of terroristic threats, Kenosha police said.
In a search at the suspect’s home, police said they discovered several air soft replica handguns and a replica rifle.
No real guns were found, police said, and the suspect’s mother told authorities the teen doesn’t have access to guns.
The suspect told police he went to the school that day to sell candy, police said. The teen “later told a social worker that he went to the school with the intent to scare students,” police said in a statement.
The teen is expected to make his first court appearance on Friday, police said.
Police said the suspect looked up school shootings online and made comments to fellow students for weeks leading up to the incident.
“We narrowly missed a tragedy,” Kenosha Police Chief Patrick Patton told reporters at a news conference on Thursday, before police determined the guns were not real.
“I can’t stress … really how heroic our office staff was,” Weiss said, adding, “They helped avert a disaster.”
Kenosha is located about 40 miles south of Milwaukee.
