Woman dies after abortion care for miscarriage delayed over 40 hours: Report
pablohart/Getty Images
(AUSTIN, Texas) — A 28-year-old Texas woman died in 2021 after her abortion care was delayed for over 40 hours as she was having a miscarriage, according to a new story from ProPublica.
Josseli Barnica was told that it would be a “crime” to intervene in her miscarriage because the fetus still had cardiac activity, despite her 17-week pregnancy already resulting in a miscarriage that was “in progress,” according to medical records obtained by ProPublica.
The medical team told Barnica that she had to wait until there was no heartbeat due to Texas’ new abortion ban, Barnica’s husband told ProPublica.
Despite Texas enacting several abortion bans after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, it was the first state to restrict the procedure by enacting a law that permitted citizens to sue physicians who provide abortion care after six weeks of pregnancy — before most women know they are pregnant — for $10,000.
Anyone who “aided and abetted” an abortion, by actions such as driving a woman to obtain abortion care, could also be sued.
Forty hours after Barnica had arrived at a Texas hospital, physicians could not detect fetal cardiac activity and she was given medication to speed up her labor, according to the report. She was discharged about eight hours later, according to ProPublica.
She continued bleeding but when she called the hospital she was told that was expected, the story said. When the bleeding grew heavier two days later, she rushed back to the hospital, according to ProPublica.
Three days after she passed the pregnancy, Barnica died of an infection, according to ProPublica.
More than a dozen medical experts who reviewed the medical records told ProPublica that her death was preventable.
“These experts said that there was a good chance she might have survived if she’d been treated earlier,” Kavitha Surana, the reporter who wrote the story for ProPublica, told ABC News Live. “No one can say for sure where the sepsis developed. But 40 hours with your cervix wide open in a hospital, that is not the standard of care to require someone to take that risk.”
After Roe was overturned, a stricter ban went into effect, penalizing doctors found guilty of providing abortions with up to 99 years in prison and fines up to $100,000.
(TAMPA, Fla.) — The fiberglass roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, was left in tatters, a 10,000-square-foot sheriff’s facility was demolished and several people were killed at a senior living community in St. Lucie County. That was among the widespread damage emerging Thursday after Hurricane Milton slammed Florida’s west coast with ferocious wind gusts, torrential rain and at least 36 reported tornadoes the whirling storm spawned even before making landfall, officials said.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday at least 10 people are confirmed dead, likely caused by the tornadoes.
Search and rescue is the “highest priority” at the moment, Mayorkas said.
“Milton may have passed, but the danger it poses has not,” he said. “Downed power lines. Floodwaters, non-potable drinking water and debris are creating deadly conditions. Keep listening to local officials and shelter in place until it is safe.”
Officials said state, county and National Guard search-and-rescue crews had rescued hundreds of people, including more than 400 trapped by high water at an apartment complex in Clearwater.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier that authorities are still assessing damage in hard-hit areas, including Siesta Key south of Sarasota, where Helene made landfall around 8:30 p.m. ET Wednesday as a Category 3 storm packing 120 mph winds.
“Right now, it looks like Sarasota County had the most significant storm surge, likely somewhere between 8 to 10 feet. And remember with Helene, we had 15 to 20 feet up in Taylor County,” DeSantis said at a news conference.
However, DeSantis said the early damage assessment indicates the hurricane, which came on the heels of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago, “was not the worst-case scenario.”
“The storm did weaken before landfall and the storm surge as initially reported had not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene,” DeSantis said.
The most tornado warnings in state history
About 125 homes were destroyed by suspected tornadoes before the hurricane came ashore, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
At least 36 tornadoes were reported across Florida, and, according to the National Weather Service, there were 126 tornado warnings issued Wednesday across the southern half of the state, the most in any day on record for the state of Florida and the second most of any state in the nation for one day.
The St. Lucie Medical Examiner confirmed Thursday that four people were killed when a tornado ripped through the Spanish Lakes County Club Village, a retirement community in St. Lucie County. No further details were released.
St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told ABC News that a twister also demolished his department’s 10,000-square-foot storage facility, which was constructed of red iron.
“Our team was within 50 yards of this structure that got hit,” Pearson said. “And we were actually storing all of our high-water rescue vehicles and our patrol vehicles (were) in this structure to prevent them from damage from the hurricane. Within seconds, a tornado came through and just demolished the structure.”
Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert told ABC News Thursday morning that the storm toppled numerous trees in her city and pushed several boats onto shore. She said the windows of some high-rises were also broken and that a small bridge leading to Lido Key was compromised.
“Overall, I think we’re doing better than we thought. In the city of Sarasota, believe it or not, we had no calls for rescues,” said Alpert, adding that most residents in the town heeded evacuation warnings.
Roof blows off Tropicana Field, crane collapses on Tampa Bay Times office
Dramatic photos and videos emerged overnight as Milton ripped into Florida. Winds of 90 mph whipped through downtown St. Petersburg, collapsing a crane at a building construction site there, according to city authorities. No injuries were reported, but video from the scene showed damage to nearby buildings.
Wind also tore off a large portion of the translucent fiberglass roof at the Tropicana Field stadium in the city, home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team.
“The majority of the roof has been ripped off and is now located south of the stadium,” St. Petersburg City Development Administrator James Corbett said Thursday morning, adding that 14 staff members inside the stadium at the time of the incident were found safe.
The non-retractable dome stadium, built in 1990, was to be used as a staging area for first responders.
The storm also dumped 18 inches of rain on St. Petersburg, causing flooding and serious damage to key infrastructure, including drinking water systems, power lines and sewage facilities, officials said.
Don Tyre, the city’s building official, said a 500-foot section of a T-crane being used to construct a 46-story residential skyscraper in downtown St. Petersburg collapsed due to the high winds, striking a nearby building. However, the remaining 600-foot section was intact and will be inspected by an engineer before it is brought back into service.
There were no reports of injuries from the toppled crane. Part of the crane fell onto the office of the Tampa Bay Times, wrecking the newspaper’s newsroom.
Times’ officials said Thursday morning that its building was closed ahead of Milton’s landfall and no employees were inside the office when the crane collapsed.
Milton also caused a major water main break in St. Petersburg, which is impacting portable water service across the city. The subsequent shutdown of the water main is expected to last until necessary repairs can be completed, officials said.
Tampa-area 7-Eleven store damaged
To the north of Tampa, the Pasco Sheriff’s Office said authorities received more than 140 calls regarding roadway obstructions. First responders “are working to remove these hazards as quickly as possible,” the office wrote on X.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office reported significant storm damage to a 7-Eleven store northwest of Tampa, with Sheriff Chad Chronister warning of downed trees and power lines in the county. Chronister urged residents to stay indoors while responders cleared the damage.
Hundreds of apartment complex residents rescued
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said his department’s personnel were stationed across the county and responded to several rescue calls.
“We had eight high-water rescue teams ready to assist, and it became necessary to utilize them overnight,” the sheriff said. “Fortunately, there were no serious injuries reported, but we did have significant rescues.”
One notable rescue operation occurred at a Clearwater apartment complex, where rising waters threatened the lives of about 2,000 residents, the sheriff’s office said.
“We rescued approximately 430 people using high-water vehicles and boats,” Gualtieri said. “The water was so high that it reached the second-floor balconies of some apartments, but thankfully, many residents had moved to higher ground.”
Gualtieri added, “We appreciate the cooperation of the residents, especially those on the barrier islands, who evacuated and helped minimize the impact of the storm. We are all working together to rebuild and recover from this challenge.”
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
(DELPHI, Ind.) — Delphi, Indiana, double murder suspect Richard Allen self-reported being at the crime scene in the days after the killings, but the tip sheet “fell in the cracks,” leaving him “hiding in plain sight” in the small town for years, the sheriff told the jury at Allen’s trial.
Best friends Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, were walking along a Delphi hiking trail when they were killed on the afternoon of Feb. 13, 2017. Allen, a Delphi resident, was arrested in October 2022 and has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Kathy Shank, a volunteer file clerk who arranged boxes of information and tips in the case, testified Thursday that on Sept. 21, 2022 — weeks before Allen’s arrest — she came across a file folder that was not with the others she was managing.
The sheet said that on Feb. 16, 2017 — three days after the murders — a person listed as “Richard Allen Whiteman” self-reported being on the trails between 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on the day of the crime. According to Shank, the self-reporter listed seeing three girls.
Shank testified that she wrote a lead sheet and changed the name to Richard Allen. Allen lived on Whiteman Drive, so she said she believed the names were transposed and it was misfiled.
She said she notified the sheriff after finding Allen’s tip sheet.
Allen’s defense attorney asked Shank, “There was no other tip, to your knowledge, that involved Richard Allen?” Shank replied, “To my knowledge, no.”
Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett acknowledged on the stand that Allen was never a suspect from 2017 to 2022 and said the tip sheet generated about him was marked “clear.” When pressed by Allen’s defense on how that could have happened, Liggett responded, Allen “got lost” and “fell in the cracks.”
The sheriff also conceded that Allen came forward on his own and never left town. “He was hiding in plain sight,” Liggett said to defense attorney Andrew Baldwin.
When Allen was arrested, Liggett was running for sheriff, which Allen’s attorneys argued was good timing for his campaign. Liggett denied the two were linked.
“This was about the murders of two little girls,” he said.Indiana State Police investigator Jerry Holeman testified about his conversation with Allen during the search of Allen’s home in the fall of 2022.
Holeman said, as the two sat in his police car, he told Allen that once the search was done he could file a claim for any damage to his house.
Holeman claimed that Allen replied, “It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”
Holeman said he didn’t record that conversation even though Allen was considered a suspect at the time. Defense attorneys pushed back on Holeman’s story, saying the jury could only take his word for it.
Indiana State Police trooper David Vido, who helped administer the search warrant at Allen’s home, testified there was no physical evidence in Allen’s car or on his jacket that linked him to the crime scene.
Prosecutors said police analysis of Allen’s gun determined that the .40-caliber unspent round discovered by the girls’ bodies was cycled through Allen’s gun.
(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said earlier this week that former President Donald Trump has “promised” him “control of the public health agencies” should Trump win back the White House in November.
Kennedy, who suspended his independent presidential campaign in August and endorsed Trump, made the remarks on a Zoom call with supporters on Monday night. The agencies Kennedy would reportedly oversee in that case include the federal Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.
“The key, which President Trump has promised me, is control of the public health agencies, which is HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and a few others. And also the USDA, which is, you know, key to making America healthy, because we’ve got to get off of seed oils and we’ve got to get off of pesticides … and we need to make that transition to regenerative agriculture,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy has been anti-vaccine activist and founded the Children’s Health Defense, a prominent anti-vaccine nonprofit that has campaigned against immunizations and other public health measures like water fluoridation. Medical experts expressed concerns about a rise in medical misinformation through Kennedy’s candidacy.
Kennedy’s remarks drew condemnation from Trump’s former Surgeon General Jerome Adams.
“If RFK has a significant influence on the next administration, that could further erode people’s willingness to get up to date with recommended vaccines, and I am worried about the impact that could have on our nation’s health, on our nation’s economy, on our global security,” Adams said at a public health conference, according to The New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg.
Trump has said he is committed to brining Kennedy into his administration. Last week, Trump touted Kennedy’s role in helping him “straighten out our health,” but joked that he’s worried about his strong stance on the environment, saying he wants to keep drilling.
“I don’t know if I’m going to have him working too much on the environment. I’m a little concerned about that with Bobby. I don’t know if I want him playing around with our with our liquid gold under our feet,” Trump said at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada, last Friday. “You know, like I said, Bobby will work on health. He’s great.”
Trump first floated the idea of Kennedy leading his administration’s health efforts during the Al Smith Dinner earlier this month. He said Kennedy will “make us a healthier place.”
“We’re gonna let him go wild for a little while, then I’m gonna have to maybe reign him back, because he’s got some pretty wild ideas, but most of them are really good,” Trump said at the dinner. “I think he’s a he’s a good man, and he believes, he believes the environment, the healthy people. He wants healthy people, he wants healthy food. And he’s going to do it. He’s going to have a big chance to do it, because we do need that.”
The Trump campaign said that while no formal decisions have been made about his Cabinet should he win the election, the former president will “work alongside” people like Kennedy in health-related roles.
“No formal decisions about Cabinet and personnel have been made, however, President Trump has said he will work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to Make America Healthy Again by providing families with safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic plaguing our children,” Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News. “President Trump will also establish a special Presidential Commission of independent minds and will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses.”
ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Soorin Kim and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
