Month: June 2022

A conservative supermajority in the U.S. Supreme Court struck down on Friday the constitutional right to an abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized the procedure in the United States. The 6-3 court decision follows a move by the high court to loosen restriction on guns in America despite modest gun control measures passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more on the rulings.
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President Joe Biden touched down in Germany on Saturday, where he will attend the G-7 summit with the leaders of key U.S. allies to discuss their united front against Russia and troubling weakness in the world economy. 

Biden flew from Washington to Munich, then boarded the Marine One helicopter for the short flight to the summit location, Schloss Elmau. His first talks during his three-day stay will be with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany on Sunday. 

The leaders of the seven wealthy democracies, the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, will meet in a luxurious castle in Germany’s Alps. 

Then they all head to Madrid for a NATO summit. 

Both sessions will take place in the shadow of Russia’s Ukraine invasion, but also a global surge in inflation, fears of recession, and the ever-growing challenge of containing China while avoiding open conflict. 

Biden has gained widespread praise for restoring U.S. leadership of its European and Asian alliances. The response to Russia in particular has seen strong transatlantic unity, both for arming the Ukrainians and imposing powerful economic sanctions against Moscow. 

But Biden, like several European leaders, is facing pressure at home over fallout from the sanctions, which have helped drive up fuel prices, imposing a heavy drag on economies exiting the COVID-19 shutdown. 

Biden is also burdened at home by a tense political situation ahead of November midterm elections that could see Republicans take back control of Congress for the next two years. 

A ruling by the Supreme Court on Friday to end decades of federal protections for access to abortion has opened a new battlefield, with Biden calling on voters to make it a key issue in November. 

He returned to the issue on Saturday before departing for Europe, saying the Supreme Court had made a “shocking decision.” 

“I know how painful and devastating the decision is for so many Americans,” he said.
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A Texas group that helps women pay for abortions halted its efforts Saturday while evaluating its legal risk under a strict state ban. Mississippi’s only abortion clinic continued to see patients while awaiting a 10-day notice that will trigger a ban. Elected officials across the country vowed to take action to protect women’s access to reproductive health care, and abortion foes promised to take the fight to new arenas.

A day after the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade ended the constitutional right to abortion, emotional protests and prayer vigils turned to resolve as several states enacted bans and both supporters and opponents of abortion rights mapped out their next moves.

In Texas, Cathy Torres, organizing manager for Frontera Fund, a group that helps pay for abortions, said there is a lot of fear and confusion in the Rio Grande Valley near the U.S.-Mexico border, where many people are in the country illegally.

That includes how the state’s abortion law will be enforced. Under the law, people who help patients get abortions can be fined and doctors who perform them could face life in prison.

“We are a fund led by people of color, who will be criminalized first,” Torres said, adding that abortion funds like hers that have paused operations hope to find a way to safely restart. “We just really need to keep that in mind and understand the risk.”

Tyler Harden, Mississippi director for Planned Parenthood Southeast, said she spent Friday and Saturday making sure people with impending appointments at the state’s only abortion clinic — which featured in the Supreme Court case but is not affiliated with Planned Parenthood — know they don’t have to cancel them right away. Abortions can take place until 10 days after the state attorney general publishes a required administrative notice.

Mississippi will ban the procedure except for pregnancies that endanger the woman’s life or those caused by rape reported to law enforcement. The Republican speaker of the Mississippi House, Philip Gunn, said during a news conference Friday that he would oppose adding an exception for incest.

“I believe that life begins at conception,” Gunn said.

Harden said she has been providing information about funds that help people travel out of state to have abortions. Many in Mississippi were doing so even before the ruling, but that will become more difficult now that abortions have ended in neighboring states. Florida is the nearest “safe haven” state, but Harden said, “we know that that may not be the case for too much longer.”

At the National Right to Life convention in Atlanta, a leader within the anti-abortion group warned attendees Saturday that the Supreme Court’s decision ushers in “a time of great possibility and a time of great danger.”

Randall O’Bannon, the organization’s director of education and research, encouraged activists to celebrate their victories but stay focused and continue working on the issue. Specifically, he called out medication taken to induce abortion.

“With Roe headed for the dustbin of history, and states gaining the power to limit abortions, this is where the battle is going to be played out over the next several years,” O’Bannon said. “The new modern menace is a chemical or medical abortion with pills ordered online and mailed directly to a woman’s home.”

Protests broke out for a second day in cities across the country, from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City to Jackson, Mississippi.

In the LA demonstration, one of several in California, hundreds of people marched through downtown carrying signs with slogans like “my body, my choice” and “abort the court.”

Turnout was smaller in Oklahoma City, where about 15 protesters rallied outside the Capitol. Oklahoma is one of 11 states where there are no providers offering abortions, and it passed the nation’s strictest abortion law in May.

“I have gone through a wave of emotions in the last 24 hours. … It’s upsetting, it’s angry, it’s hard to put together everything I’m feeling right now,” said Marie Adams, 45, who has had two abortions for ectopic pregnancies, where a fertilized egg is unable to survive. She called the issue “very personal to me.”

“Half the population of the United States just lost a fundamental right,” Adams said. “We need to speak up and speak loud.”

Callie Pruett, who volunteered to escort patients into West Virginia’s only abortion clinic before it stopped offering the procedure after Friday’s ruling, said she plans to work in voter registration in the hope of electing officials who support abortion rights. The executive director of Appalachians for Appalachia added that her organization also will apply for grants to help patients get access to abortion care, including out of state.

“We have to create networks of people who are willing to drive people to Maryland or to D.C.,” Pruett said. “That kind of local action requires organization at a level that we have not seen in nearly 50 years.”

Fellow West Virginian Sarah MacKenzie, 25, said she’s motivated to fight for abortion access by the memory of her mother, Denise Clegg, a passionate reproductive health advocate who worked for years at the state’s clinic as a nurse practitioner and died unexpectedly in May. MacKenzie plans to attend protests in the capital, Charleston, and donate to a local abortion fund.

“She would be absolutely devastated. She was so afraid of this happening — she wanted to stop it,” Mackenzie said, adding, “I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that this gets reversed.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

Since the decision, clinics have stopped performing abortions in Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Women considering abortions already had been dealing with the near-complete ban in Oklahoma and a prohibition after roughly six weeks in Texas.

In Ohio, a ban on most abortions from the first detectable fetal heartbeat became law when a federal judge dissolved an injunction that had kept the measure on hold for nearly three years.

Another law with narrow exceptions was triggered in Utah by Friday’s ruling. Planned Parenthood Association of Utah filed a lawsuit against it in state court and said it would request a temporary restraining order, arguing it violates the state constitution.

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, where abortion remains legal, signed an executive order shielding people seeking or providing abortions in his state from facing legal consequences in other states. Walz also has vowed to reject requests to extradite anyone accused of committing acts related to reproductive health care that are not criminal offenses in Minnesota.

“My office has been and will continue to be a firewall against legislation that would reverse reproductive freedom,” he said.

In Fargo, North Dakota, the state’s sole abortion provider faces a 30-day window before it would have to shut down and plans to move across the river to Minnesota. Red River Women’s Clinic owner Tammi Kromenaker said Saturday that she has secured a location in Moorhead and an online fundraiser to support the move has brought in more than half a million dollars in less than three days.

Republicans sought to downplay their excitement about winning their decades-long fight to overturn Roe, aware that the ruling could energize the Democratic base, particularly suburban women. Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said she expects abortion opponents to turn out in huge numbers this fall.

But Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, said Saturday he believes the issue will energize independents and he hopes to translate anger over Roe’s demise into votes.

“Any time you take half the people in Wisconsin and make them second-class citizens,” Evers said, “I have to believe there’s going to be a reaction to that.” 
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The Taliban renewed their call Saturday for the United States to unfreeze Afghanistan’s foreign funds and lift financial sanctions to help the war-torn country deal with its deadliest earthquake in more than two decades.  

The United Nations said humanitarian organizations, in coordination with Taliban authorities, are continuing to provide aid to families in Paktika and Khost, the two southeastern Afghan provinces hardest hit by Wednesday’s 5.9 magnitude earthquake.  

“There are, however, unconfirmed reports that between 700 and 800 families are living in the open across three of the six worst-affected districts,” said a U.N. statement Saturday.  

“Families living in non-damaged and partially damaged buildings have also reportedly resorted to living out in the open out of fear that there may be further tremors,” the statement added.  

The quake killed 1,150 people, injured about 1,600 and destroyed nearly 3,000 homes, with hundreds more partially damaged, according to Taliban officials. The destruction hit some of the poorest and most remote mountainous Afghan areas near the Pakistan border which lacks the infrastructure to withstand calamities of this scale. At least 121 children were among those killed and the toll is likely to increase, according to the U.N. children’s fund UNICEF.  

Afghan authorities have called off the search for survivors, and they were struggling to deliver critically needed aid due to capacity challenges.

“In these testing times, we call on the United States to release Afghanistan’s frozen assets and lift sanctions on Afghan banks so that aid agencies could easily deliver assistance to Afghanistan,” Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said Saturday, while speaking to reporters in the capital, Kabul.

U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order in February that was aimed at freeing up half the $7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets on U.S. soil. The money would be used to benefit the Afghan people while the rest would be held to possibly satisfy terrorism-related lawsuits against the Taliban.

“We are urgently working to address complicated questions about the use of these funds to ensure they benefit the people of Afghanistan and not the Taliban,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Saturday.

But she reiterated the Biden administration was not waiting and was working through international partners to urgently get aid to the Afghan people.

The UNICEF representative in the country, Mohamed Ayoya, visited one of the worst-hit districts in Paktika and described the situation on Twitter.

“I saw despair, desolation, suffering, vulnerability but also resilience & acts of solidarity from national businessmen, international organizations & authorities,” Ayoya wrote.  

More foreign aid arrives  

Meanwhile, Afghan officials said cargo planes from neighboring Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, and the gulf state of Qatar, carrying relief supplies for survivors, landed at the Khost airport.

Mansoor Ahmad Khan, the Pakistani ambassador in Kabul, said in a Twitter post that his country had also stationed “19 paramedics/doctors…at Khost Airport from 23 June with 3 ambulances & mobile hospital to treat injured & refer serious to hospitals in Pakistan.”

China said it would provide humanitarian assistance worth $7.5 million to Afghanistan, including tents, towels, beds and other supplies urgently needed in quake-devastated areas.  

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Saturday the first batch of supplies was scheduled to depart for the crisis-hit neighbor by charter flights Monday.

“In the next few days, China will coordinate closely with the Afghan interim government to ensure the rapid delivery of the relief supplies into the hands of the people in need,” Wenbin said.

Britain has also pledged to provide $3 million for immediate life-saving support to Afghans affected by the devastating earthquake.

The international community has not yet recognized the Taliban’s interim government since the Islamist insurgent group took over Afghanistan last August, citing concerns over human rights and terrorism.  

The Taliban takeover came as U.S. and NATO partners withdrew their final troops, ending almost two decades of foreign military intervention in the South Asian nation.

Washington and other Western countries have since halted financial assistance to largely aid-dependent Afghanistan, seized its foreign assets worth more than $9 billion, mostly held by the U.S, and isolated the Afghan banking system.

The actions and long-running terrorism-related sanctions on senior Taliban leaders have thrown cash-strapped Afghanistan into a severe economic crisis, worsening an already bad humanitarian crisis blamed on years of war and persistent drought.

The United Nations estimates that 97% of Afghanistan’s 40 million people will be living below the poverty line this year.  

U.S. Acting Political Counselor Trina Saha told a U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday that the Afghan earthquake was a devastating blow to a population that is already suffering gravely.

“We call for urgent donor assistance to relief efforts,” she said. Saha added that “the earthquake highlights the vulnerability of the Afghan people and underscores the dire need for continued humanitarian assistance.”

 
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Hundreds of protesters descended on the U.S. Supreme Court Saturday to denounce the justice’s decision to overturn the half-century-old Roe v. Wade precedent that recognized women’s constitutional right to abortion.

The sweeping ruling by the court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, was set to vastly change American life, with nearly half the states considered certain or likely to ban abortion.

Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the court’s reasoning could also lead it to reconsider past rulings protecting the right to contraception, legalizing gay marriage nationwide, and invalidating state laws banning gay sex.

The crowd featured both abortion opponents wearing T-shirts reading “I am the Pro-Life Generation” and abortion rights supporters chanting “my body, my choice.”

“The Supreme Court has made some terrible decisions,” Democratic President Joe Biden said Saturday. He added that the White House would look to police how states enforce bans, with administration officials having already signaled they plan to fight attempts by states to ban a pill used for medication abortion.

“The decision is implemented by states,” Biden said. “My administration is going to focus on how they administer and whether or not they violate other laws.”

Christian conservatives had long fought to overturn Roe, with Friday’s ruling a cherished win that was the result of a long campaign to appoint justices opposed to abortion to the top court. The ruling had the support of all three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump.

It is at odds with broad public opinion. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found that about 71% of Americans – including majorities of Democrats and Republicans – said decisions about terminating a pregnancy should be left to a woman and her doctor, rather than regulated by the government. That support is not absolute: 26% of respondents polled said abortion should be legal in all cases, while 10% said it should be illegal in all cases, with the majority supporting some limits.

The ruling will likely influence voter behavior in the November 8 midterm elections, when Biden’s Democrats face a high risk of losing their razor-thin majorities in the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. Some party leaders hope the decision will win over suburban swing voters, though activists expressed disappointment and demoralization at suffering such a defeat while their party held total power in Washington.

“They can ask for vote for more power, but don’t they already have the Congress and the White House?” said Patricia Smith, a 24-year-old supporter of abortion rights, who was headed to the Supreme Court to protest. “They have not been able to pass much in terms of legislation despite the power, so what is the point?”

The decision came just a day after the court issued another landmark ruling finding that Americans have a constitutional right to carry a concealed gun for protection – leading them to invalidate a New York state law that set strict limits on concealed carry permits.

The two rulings showed an aggressively conservative court ready to flex its muscle and remake American life at a time when Congress is often deadlocked and struggles to pass major policy changes.

It also signaled that Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative who preferred to act incrementally, no longer holds the power to slow the court’s action. Roberts had voted to support the Mississippi abortion ban that was the subject of Friday’s decision, but it did not vote to overturn Roe itself.

During a call with journalists Saturday, a group of Democratic state attorneys general said they would not use their offices to enforce abortion bans.

“We are not going to use the resources of the Wisconsin Department of Justice to investigate or prosecute anybody for alleged violations of the 19th century abortion ban,” said Josh Kaul, that state’s attorney general. “I’ve also encouraged district attorneys, sheriff prosecutors and police chiefs in our state not to use their resources to investigate or prosecute abortions.”

The White House on Saturday said it would challenge any efforts by states to restrict women’s ability to travel out of their home state to seek an abortion. 

Tears, Anger at the “Pink House”

The case that led to Friday’s decision revolved around a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, before the fetus is viable outside the womb.

The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, nicknamed the “Pink House” because of its bubble gum-colored paint, was named in the case. The clinic was still operating on Saturday morning, with escorts showing up to the state’s sole abortion clinic about 5 a.m. to prepare for the arrival of patients.

Anti-abortion protesters began setting up ladders to peer over the property’s fence and large posters with messages, including “abortion is murder” not long after.

Coleman Boyd, 50, a longtime protester outside the clinic who frequently comes with his wife and children to shout gospel through a bullhorn, incorrectly told women waiting for appointments that they were violating the law.

In truth, Mississippi’s law will not shut down the clinic for another nine days. Boyd called the Roe ruling “history” but “definitely not a victory,” noting that he wanted to see an end to abortion in all states.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a bipartisan gun safety bill into law — the first major federal gun reform in three decades, days after the Supreme Court expanded gun rights.

“This is monumental day,” Biden said at the White House, with his wife Jill by his side. “God willing, it’s going to save a lot of lives.”

The Supreme Court on Thursday declared for the first time that the U.S. Constitution protected an individual’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense. Gun control has long been a divisive issue in the nation with several attempts to put new controls on gun sales failing time after time.

The new legislation includes provisions to help states keep guns out of the hands of those deemed to be a danger to themselves or others and blocks gun sales to those convicted of abusing unmarried intimate partners. It does not ban sales of assault-style rifles or high-capacity magazines.

The law does take some steps on background checks by allowing access, for the first time, to information on significant crimes committed by juveniles. It also cracks down on gun sales to purchasers convicted of domestic violence.  

It provides new federal funding to states that administer “red flag” laws intended to remove guns from people deemed dangerous to themselves and others.

Biden said he would host an event in July for victims of gun violence to mark the bill’s signing.

“Their message to us was do something … today we did,” said Biden.

The President also repeated his criticism of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday, which eliminated the constitutional right to abortion nationwide, and said his administration was going to focus on how states implemented the decision and make sure they did not violate other laws.

“Is the Supreme Court broken? The Supreme Court has made some terrible decisions,” Biden said. “Jill and I know how painful and devastating the decision is for so many Americans and I mean so many Americans. We’re going to take action to protect women’s rights and reproductive health.”
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North Korea on Saturday condemned “aggression moves” by Washington and Seoul, vowing to take revenge as it marked the 72nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War at a time of rising tension on the Korean Peninsula.

Amid concerns North Korea could be preparing to conduct its first nuclear test in five years, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed in May to deploy more U.S. weapons if it was necessary to deter the North.

The North’s state news agency KCNA said Saturday a number of workers’ organizations had held meetings to “vow revenge on the U.S. imperialists,” blaming the United States for starting the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The war ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, meaning U.S.-led U.N. forces are still technically at war with North Korea.

According to the KCNA report, Pyongyang denounced Washington over what it called “aggression moves” carried out with South Korea and Japan, and said the U.S. push to deploy “strategic assets” on the South was aimed at provoking another war.

Strategic assets can typically include aircraft carriers, long-range bomber aircraft or missile submarines.  

“Such insolent behavior of the U.S. fans the anger and revenge of the Korean people,” KCNA said.

Marking the war anniversary in Seoul, Yoon pledged to do his utmost to protect freedom and peace.  

“We will maintain strong security posture based on South Korea-U.S. alliance and a strong military backed by science and technology,” he wrote on Facebook.

Saturday’s anniversary came amid concerns Pyongyang could conduct what would be its seventh nuclear test, which U.S. and South Korean officials have said could take place “any time” now.
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The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which has guaranteed a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion for almost 50 years, is set to activate anti-abortion laws in at least 13 states.

While some of the so-called “trigger laws” have been in place for years, others have been enacted more recently. Some states could activate their anti-abortion laws immediately, with others following shortly thereafter.

The 13 states that have laws that would ban or halt abortions with the Supreme Court’s overturn Friday of Roe are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
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Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

UN chief warns risk of multiple famines in 2021 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told an international conference on food security Friday in Berlin that the world is facing the “real risk” of multiple famines this year and that 2023 could be even worse. He said rising fuel and fertilizer prices are dramatically affecting the world’s farmers.  

UN Chief Says World Faces ‘Real Risk’ of Multiple Famines This Year 

Earthquake rocks Afghanistan as Security Council urges respect for rights 

The U.N. Security Council expressed sympathy for the Afghan people on Thursday in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake, while it continued to press Taliban authorities to reverse restrictions on women and to stabilize the country.   

At UN, Taliban Are Pressed to Reverse Rights Restrictions

Guterres appeals for renewal of cross-border aid operation for Syria 

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Monday that it is a “moral imperative” for the 15 members to renew a cross-border aid operation from Turkey into northwest Syria that assists more than 4 million people. The council must vote on renewing the mechanism by July 10. Russia says it prefers all aid to go through Damascus. U.N. humanitarian officials say that would be inadequate to meet the scale of need, which is the highest it has been since the war started in 2011.

UN Chief Appeals for Cross-Border Aid Into NW Syria

In brief    

— Friday marked four months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The U.N. says more than 12 million Ukrainians have been uprooted by the conflict. It is scaling up its assistance and is now reaching nearly 9 million people with aid. In the east of the country, where fighting is intense, the organization says it needs access to civilians in need. 

— The U.N. expressed concern Thursday at reports that Myanmar’s military junta has transferred ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest to prison, where she is being held in solitary confinement. Antonio Guterres’ spokesman said the development “goes against everything we’ve been calling for, which was her release and the release of the president and all of the other political prisoners, and we are concerned for her state.” 

— The U.N. said Friday that across northern Ethiopia’s Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions, 13 million people need food and other assistance. The region had been cut off to aid for months, but since convoys started entering in early April, more than 120,000 tons of food and supplies have been delivered. But aid distribution is being hindered by fuel shortages. Two million liters per month is needed, but less than half of that has entered the region in the past three months.   

— A U.N. study says 222 million children and adolescents worldwide have had their education disrupted by multiple crises. Education Cannot Wait said Wednesday that conflict, displacement, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate-induced disasters are the main culprits. The study found that 78.2 million children have dropped out of school — a troubling development education, experts say, as they are unlikely to resume their education, which will have lifelong repercussions.

Quote of note     

“Access to safe, legal and effective abortion is firmly rooted in international human rights law and is at the core of women’s and girls’ autonomy and ability to make their own choices about their bodies and lives, free of discrimination, violence and coercion. This decision strips such autonomy from millions of women in the U.S., in particular those with low incomes and those belonging to racial and ethnic minorities, to the detriment of their fundamental rights.”  

— Michelle Bachelet, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, reacting to the U.S. Supreme Court decision Friday removing a 50-year-old constitutional right to a legal and safe abortion for American women.

Next week

The United Nations said Thursday it will broker new talks between Libyan politicians from rival institutions in a bid to break a deadlock on the rules for long-awaited elections.

Read more on the political situation here: UN to Hold New Libya Talks as Stalemate Persists

Did you know? 

Friday was the first International Day of Women in Diplomacy. The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution by consensus on June 20 put forward by the Maldives making it an annual commemoration. Only one-fifth of the current ambassadors to the United Nations in New York are women — about 44.

U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said in a tweet that the international community must keep fighting for women’s leadership.

 
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President Joe Biden’s proposed Indo Pacific Economic Framework with key Asian nations signals a new approach for U.S. trade policy in the region. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, U.S. farmers are optimistic the Framework will provide new markets for their goods.
Camera: Kane Farabaugh Producer: Kane Farabaugh
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The former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home is scheduled to be released from prison next week, months after his murder conviction was overturned and he was resentenced on a lesser charge.

Mohamed Noor, 36, is scheduled to be released from custody Monday, according to online Department of Corrections records.

Noor was initially convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the 2017 fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a 40-year-old dual U.S.-Australian citizen and yoga teacher. But last year, the Minnesota Supreme Court tossed out his murder conviction and 12½-year sentence, saying the murder charge didn’t apply to the circumstances of this case.

He was resentenced to four years and nine months on the manslaughter charge.

In Minnesota, it’s presumed that a defendant with good behavior will serve two-thirds of a sentence in prison and the rest on supervised release, commonly known as parole. The DOC’s website says Noor will be on supervised release until Jan. 24, 2024.

Damond’s father, John Ruszczyk, said Friday that the family was disappointed that Noor’s third-degree murder conviction was overturned.

“His release after a trivial sentence shows great disrespect to the wishes of the jury who represented the communities of Minneapolis and their wish to make a statement about the communities’ expectations of police behavior and actions,” Ruszczyk wrote in response to emailed questions from The Associated Press.

After his conviction, Noor began serving his time at Minnesota’s maximum-security prison in Oak Park Heights, but the Minneapolis newspaper, the Star Tribune, reported he was transferred to a facility in North Dakota in July 2019 for his safety. Department of Corrections spokesman Nicholas Kimball said Noor is still out of state but did not specify where.

“For safety reasons, we aren’t able to provide more detail than what is available on the public website, which is the scheduled date of release,” Kimball said.

It wasn’t clear whether Noor would return to Minnesota. His attorney, Tom Plunkett, declined to comment, saying, “at this point I just want to respect Mr. Noor’s privacy.”

Damond’s killing angered citizens in the U.S. and Australia and led to the resignation of Minneapolis’ police chief. It also led the department to change its policy on body cameras; Noor and his partner didn’t have theirs activated when they were investigating Damond’s 911 call.

Noor testified at his 2019 trial that he and his partner were driving slowly in an alley when a loud bang on their police SUV made him fear for their lives. He said he saw a woman appear at the partner’s driver’s side window and raise her right arm before he fired a shot from the passenger seat to stop what he thought was a threat.

Damond was a meditation teacher and life coach who was killed about a month before her wedding. Her maiden name was Justine Ruszczyk, and though she was not yet married, she had already been using her fiance’s last name.

Her fiance, Don Damond, declined to comment on Noor’s pending release, but said during Noor’s resentencing that he had forgiven the former officer, and that he had no doubt Justine also would have forgiven him “for your inability in managing your emotions that night.”

Noor, who is Somali American, was believed to be the first Minnesota officer convicted of murder for an on-duty shooting. Activists who had long called for officers to be held accountable for the deadly use of force applauded the murder conviction but lamented that it came in a case in which the officer is Black and his victim was white.

Since Noor’s conviction, former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of murder in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man who was pinned to the pavement under Chauvin’s knee. Chauvin’s colleague, Thomas Lane, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting manslaughter, while two other officers are awaiting trial on charges of aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter. All four have been convicted on federal charges of violating Floyd’s rights.

In another case, former Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter was convicted of manslaughter after she said she mistook her Taser for her handgun when she fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist, during a traffic stop last year.

Days after Noor’s conviction, Minneapolis agreed to pay $20 million to Damond’s family, believed at the time to be the largest settlement stemming from police violence in Minnesota. It was surpassed last year when Minneapolis agreed to a $27 million settlement in Floyd’s death just as Chauvin was going on trial.
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A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Friday that held there is no constitutional right to an abortion generated a tsunami of emotion across the United States. Religious conservatives celebrated the attainment of a long-held goal while abortion-rights advocates warned that millions of American women will now face daunting obstacles to receiving what many consider a basic health care service.

Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court cheered, booed, and wept as Americans across the country began to prepare for a future in which a woman’s right to abort a pregnancy — protected for nearly 50 years by the court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade — will be eliminated or sharply curtailed in more than half of the 50 states.

In more than a dozen states, restrictions on abortion were expected to take effect almost immediately due either to “trigger laws” meant to come into effect with the overturning of Roe, or laws already on the books that were not enforced because of the protections Roe afforded.

In all, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a women’s health research organization, eventually 26 states are “certain or likely to ban abortion to the fullest extent possible.”

In some states this will include measures banning abortion with no exception for rape or incest, bringing criminal prosecutions against medical professionals who perform abortions, and bringing criminal prosecutions against women who have abortions.

Activists react

“It’s truly an atrocity,” said Heather Shumaker, director of state abortion access at the National Women’s Law Center. “We are yet to see the chaos that’s going to be unleashed in this country from this decision.”

“Every day women are seeking abortion care,” she told VOA. “They need help from their families and their friends and their trusted partners and providers to get that care. And the court has essentially put all of that into jeopardy with this decision. Clinics are going to be closing. Those who help people get abortions could be threatened with lawsuits, people are going to be increasingly criminalized and policed. … I don’t think that the country truly knows what to expect yet.”

By contrast Steven Aden, general counsel for Americans United for Life, told VOA that he experienced “euphoria” when the decision was announced, and called on abortion rights supporters to accept the ruling.

“The pro-life movement extends its hand across the aisle, to those on the pro-abortion side, and we call on them to recognize what abortion really is and does to women and to life in the womb so that we can forge a new America, one that’s not divided over the right to kill children in the womb,” he said.

Patchwork of laws

By making the federal government silent on the question of abortion and throwing the issue to the states, the ruling guarantees a patchwork of abortion laws across the country. The procedure is expected to remain broadly available in the Northeast, on the Pacific Coast, and in some states in the interior of the country, including Illinois, Colorado and New Mexico.

In areas of the Deep South and Midwest, however, there will be little or no access to abortion services. Women seeking care could face journeys of hundreds of miles — which virtually guarantees that many will carry unwanted pregnancies to term. This will be particularly true for women without significant financial resources and support networks, a population in which minority groups are disproportionately represented, according to the U.S. Census.

There will also be variations among states in the way abortion laws are enforced. In some cases, it will be the job of law enforcement agencies to bring charges against people found to be in violation of the law.

In other states, including Texas and Oklahoma, enforcement is delegated to private citizens. Those states have given individual citizens the right to sue people involved in an abortion procedure that is against the law. This tactic was originally devised when Roe remained in force, because it made it difficult or impossible to challenge the legislation in federal court.

Warnings of negative consequences

Professor Tracey A. Weitz, an American University sociologist, told VOA that research has clearly established that women who want an abortion but are unable to get one experience a wide range of negative outcomes in the next five years.

“Those women were more likely to have poor economic consequences, more bankruptcies, more evictions, more financial problems,” she said. “The children that they had, and the children they already had, are more likely to suffer economic and social consequences. People were more likely to stay in relationships with violent partners, and they were more likely to suffer health consequences and, in some cases, death.”

Weitz said that these problems will hit the poorest Americans the hardest.

Wealthier American will be able to travel to access abortion services, she said.

“The people who will be left having the children that they did not anticipate and know that they cannot care for will be people who already suffer from the structures of oppression,” she said. “They’re more likely to be people of color and more likely to be low income.”

Anti-abortion ‘safety net’

Even as they celebrated the ruling, some anti-abortion organizations acknowledged that by restricting abortion rights, states would create a heightened need for services among women who carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

“Over the next few years we will have the opportunity to save hundreds of thousands, even millions of lives by limiting the horror of abortion in many states,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in a prepared statement. “In this mission of justice and mercy, we redouble our commitment to women and families.”

Dannenfelser called for the expansion of a “pro-life safety net” for pregnant women and their families.

Republicans supportive of ruling

“The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Dobbs is courageous and correct,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, said in a statement. “This is an historic victory for the Constitution and for the most vulnerable in our society.

“Millions of Americans have spent half a century praying, marching, and working toward today’s historic victories for the rule of law and for innocent life,” he added. “I have been proud to stand with them throughout our long journey and I share their joy today.”

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy called the decision “the most important pro-life ruling in American history.”

He added, “The right to life has been vindicated. The voiceless will finally have a voice. This great nation can now live up to its core principle that all are created equal — not born equal — created.”

Democrats decry it

President Joe Biden on Friday called the court’s ruling the “realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error.” He noted that it is the first time the court has acted to take away a constitutionally protected right.

Biden said the federal right to an abortion could be restored legislatively, but acknowledged that in a closely divided Congress in which Democrats broadly support abortion rights and Republican broadly do not, a law codifying the protections of Roe was unlikely to pass. He called on supporters of abortion access to vote with the issue of abortion access in mind in November’s midterm elections.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, offered a similar call to voters.

“A woman’s fundamental health decisions are her own to make, in consultation with her doctor and her loved ones — not to be dictated by far-right politicians,” Pelosi said in a statement. “While Republicans seek to punish and control women, Democrats will keep fighting ferociously to enshrine Roe v. Wade into law.”

Calling the ruling “cruel … outrageous and heart-wrenching,” she added, “But make no mistake: the rights of women and all Americans are on the ballot this November.”
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The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the decades-old Roe v. Wade decision, which said women have a constitutional right to have an abortion. States will now decide whether to permit the procedure; it’s expected that roughly half could do so. VOA’s Laurel Bowman reports.
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