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Arguing an abortion procedure is unlawfully barbaric worked once. Will it work again?

Abortion opponents once convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to ban an abortion procedure on the basis that it was gruesome and barbaric. They are spreading a similar narrative about abortion medication in court and at protests like this year’s March for Life on Jan. 23, 2026. (Photo by Sofia Resnick/States Newsroom) There is a content warning on page 7 of a friend-of-the-court brief recently submitted in a high-stakes abortion medication case by women who say they were injured or traumatized from taking the pills. “Warning: these accounts are raw, graphic and real.” About 30 mostly anonymous people recount their medication abortions, saying they were uninformed about what they would experience mentally and physically. The graphic accounts and bloody portraits are meant to bolster the argument that the practice is a barbaric and gruesome one that states have the authority to ban. The brief argues the problem is perpetuated by telehealth abortion. “We call it a par...

Judge blocks Noem policy limiting congressional visits to immigrant detention facilities

U.S. Reps. Kelly Morrison, Ilhan Omar and Angie Craig of Minnesota, all Democrats, arrive outside of the regional ICE headquarters at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The lawmakers attempted to access the facility where the Department of Homeland Security has been headquartered in the state. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — A federal judge Monday temporarily blocked a Department of Homeland Security policy that instituted a seven-day notice requirement for members of Congress to conduct oversight visits at facilities that hold immigrants, finding it likely violates appropriations law that allows for unannounced visits. The order from Judge Jia Cobb of the District Court for the District of Columbia rejects initial arguments from the Trump administration that the separate funding stream from the tax cuts and spending package passed last year circumvents a 2019 appropriations law that allows for unanno...

Tuberculosis cases have been rising as public health agencies struggle to keep up

Family nurse practitioner Munira Maalimisaq, center, gives a vaccine education session at Inspire Change Clinic, a nonprofit health care center she leads in Minneapolis. Tuberculosis cases in the U.S. have been rising since 2021. (Photo courtesy of Munira Maalimisaq) In Johnson County, Iowa, the number of tuberculosis cases has increased in recent years — and so has the cost of containing it. The cost of contact tracing and surveillance, traveling each day to patients’ homes to ensure they take their meds or booking hotel rooms to quarantine patients, has surged from $17,000 in 2020 to $65,000 last year. That doesn’t include $13,000 spent last year for language translation, as many of the cases were among the local immigrant communities, said Danielle Pettit-Majewski, director of the Johnson County public health department. She said the rise in spending is directly tied to the increase in diagnoses since 2020, with latent infections tripling, from 27 that year to 90 last yea...

Death toll for US service members in Iran war at 4 as Hegseth refuses to specify timeline

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listens to questions during a news conference at the Pentagon on March 2, 2026 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — The U.S. war on Iran will continue unabated on President Donald Trump’s terms, with more troops on the way and more casualties expected, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters early Monday. Speaking to the press for the first time since the United States and Israel launched a massive attack early Saturday, the secretary, whose comments came as the military announced the fourth U.S. service member killed, would not specify a timeline or exit strategy for the mission. “We will finish this on America first conditions of President Trump’s choosing, nobody else’s, as it should be,” Hegseth said. Hegseth did not provide details about the three U.S. service members whose deaths were announced Sunday. The secretary said that “a squirter” — apparently referring to an offensive missile or dro...

Katie Britt’s Trump whisperer strategy isn’t working for Alabama

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, speaks to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 15, 2024. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) At several points in this recent New York Times profile of Katie Britt, I had to stop my eyebrows from hitting the ceiling. The piece traces the rise and fall of Britt’s interest in Liam Ramos, the 5-year-old Minneapolis child apprehended by ICE agents in January. As a reminder, the agents locked this boy up and used him as bait to arrest other members of his family. In the profile, Britt at first expresses worries about this young boy. She directs her staff to look into his case. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE “I’m sorry,” she says at one point, with tears in her eyes. “I just keep thinking about that child.” Alabama’s soon-to-be senior U.S. senator calls DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, a particularly untrustworthy member of an administration of unreliable narrators. Noem tells her that the agents followed prope...

Former U.S. Attorney: Trump ‘tried his best to break us, and he failed’

Former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Joyce Vance (left) speaks to Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, about her recent book on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026 in Montgomery. Vance said the book offers a glimpse into the actions of the second Trump administration and a framework for how to protect democracy in the U.S. (Ralph Chapoco/Alabama Reflector) Former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said Tuesday that for all his threats to democracy, President Donald Trump has revealed something about it. Speaking at NewSouth Bookstore in Montgomery to promote her book “Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy,” Vance said that she worried after Trump’s election because so many people said “that they were ready to give up.” “Folks were devastated and said, ‘I am just going to leave and whatever happens, happens,’” she said. “And to me, that felt like the worst possible outcome for our country; the idea of Donald Trump with no guardrails.” But Vance said that ...