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A Texas law banning most abortions has seen nearby states, such as New Mexico, prepare for an increase in women travelling for the procedure.

The law, which the US Supreme Court allowed to stand after it came into force on Wednesday, bans abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, which is typically around six weeks.

New Mexico is one of the states that has no gestation limits on abortion.

Abortion rights supporters gather to protest Texas SB 8 in front of Edinburg City Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021, in Edinburg, Texas. The nation's most far-reaching curb on abortions since they were legalized a half-century ago took effect Wednesday in Texas, with the Supreme Court silent on an emergency appeal to put the law on hold.(Joel Martinez/The Monitor via AP)
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Protesters gather as the nation’s most far-reaching curb on abortions since they were legalized a half-century ago took effect on Wednesday

Joan Lamunyon Sanford, executive director of the New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, told NBC News: “Every time Texas passes some kind of bill restricting abortion, we see more people seeking care here in New Mexico.

“This time, with the worst, most restrictive we’ve ever seen, we’re definitely preparing to serve a significant number of additional patients seeking refuge from the new Texas law.”

Fund Texas Choice, which helps women in Texas and other places with restrictive abortion laws end their pregnancies in other states, said it already has seen more women reaching out.

The organisation typically handles 10 new cases per week but received 10 calls from new clients just on Wednesday, when the law took effect.

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An Oklahoma clinic had received more than double its number of typical inquiries, two-thirds of them from Texas.

Meanwhile, a Colorado clinic that already had started seeing more patients from other states, was preparing to ramp up supplies and staffing in anticipation of the law taking effect.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the 'heartbeat bill' into law.
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Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the ‘heartbeat bill’ into law in May

Even before a strict abortion ban took effect in Texas this week, clinics in neighbouring states were fielding growing numbers of calls from women desperate for options.

The number of Texans seeking abortions in Planned Parenthood clinics in the Rocky Mountain region, which covers Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and southern Nevada, was 12 times higher in March 2020.

This came after Governor Greg Abbott banned abortions for nearly a month under a COVID-19 executive order.
In Kansas, the number of Texans getting abortions jumped from 25 in 2019 to 289 last year.

The Trust Women clinic in Wichita accounted for 203 of those procedures in a three-month period, with spokesman Zack Gingrich-Gaylord saying: “Last year was a dress rehearsal.”

Abortion rights supporters gather to protest Texas SB 8 in front of Edinburg City Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021, in Edinburg, Texas. The nation's most far-reaching curb on abortions since they were legalized a half-century ago took effect Wednesday in Texas, with the Supreme Court silent on an emergency appeal to put the law on hold.(Joel Martinez/The Monitor via AP)
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Abortion rights supporters gather to protest the bill

The clinic typically sees 40 to 50 abortion patients in a week and now is expecting an additional 15 to 20.

One woman from San Antonio discovered she was pregnant just as Abbott’s emergency order banning abortions was lifted, but she and her partner had lost their jobs during the pandemic.

“We didn’t know which way the world was going to go with everything shut down and no change in sight,” said Miranda, who spoke on the condition that only her first name be used. “The last thing I wanted to do was be pregnant.”

She struggled to find an abortion clinic and an online search led her to Fund Texas Choice and the Lilith Fund, which offered to pay for a flight to New Mexico.

“It’s so comforting because it’s like someone saying, ‘We got you. Let’s take care of this together,'” Miranda said, adding that she found an appointment at a clinic in Dallas, a five-hour drive away.

But, despite efforts to ramp up resources and support for Texan women, experts are warning that the journeys remain too expensive or arduous for many.

With the majority of abortion care in Texas shut down, the average one-way driving distance to a clinic will increase twentyfold, from 12 miles to 248 miles, according to Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute.

Travelling may be impossible for women who would struggle to find child care or take time off work while those without legal US status along Texas’ southern border risk of getting stopped at a checkpoint if they cross state lines to seek an abortion.

Anna Rupani, co-director of Fund Texas Choice, also said: “There’s real panic about how are they going to get an abortion within six weeks.

“There’s this fear that if I can’t get it done in six weeks, I may not be able to get it done because I may not be able to leave my job or my family for more than a day.”

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Bodycam footage shows prison guards beating handcuffed inmate before his death

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Bodycam footage shows prison guards beating handcuffed inmate before his death

Bodycam footage showing prison officers fatally beating an inmate has been released by New York’s attorney general.

Prison officers at Marcy Correctional Facility in New York punched and kicked 43-year-old Robert Brooks repeatedly while he was handcuffed on an infirmary bed.

He died in hospital on 10 December, a day after the attack.

The incident has drawn outrage from political leaders and was condemned by the prison officers’ union as “incomprehensible”, according to Sky News’ partner newsroom NBC.

It is now being investigated by state attorney general Letitia James, who called the videos “shocking and disturbing” at a virtual news conference.

Prison officers attacked Robert Brooks on the day he was transferred to Marcy Correctional Facility in New York. Pic: The New York Attorney General Office
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Prison officers attacked Robert Brooks while he was handcuffed. Pic: New York Attorney General Office

In the video, Mr Brooks is in handcuffs as he is carried into the infirmary by several prison guards.

They put him on the bed and begin repeatedly punching and kicking him.

He is pulled upright, where his bloodied face is visible on camera, and then yanked from the bed by his shirt collar and pushed up against a window.

One of the fourteen workers involved in the incident has resigned and the rest have been suspended without pay until the process to fire them is complete. The workers include correctional officers, sergeants and a prison nurse.

The officers had not activated their body cameras but they were still on and recorded in standby mode, without audio, during the attack.

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As a result of the incident, all officers will now need to have their cameras activated any time they are engaging directly with prisoners.

Mr Brooks’ family thanked officials for taking action “to hold officers accountable” in a statement this week.

“We cannot understand how this could have happened in the first place,” the family said. “No one should have to lose a family member this way.”

Robert Brooks, who died a day after being attacked by prison officers. Pic: Family handout
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Robert Brooks, who died a day after being attacked by prison officers. Pic: Family handout

The attack happened before 9.30pm on 9 December in a medical exam room after Mr Brooks had been transferred from the Mohawk Correctional Facility to Marcy Correctional Facility.

An autopsy found “preliminary findings show concern for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, as well as the death being due to actions of another,” according to a state corrections office investigative report obtained by an affiliate of Sky News’ partner newsroom WKTV in Utica.

Mr Brooks had been behind bars since 2017 on a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault involving a longtime girlfriend.

Officials declined to say why he had been transferred to the Marcy Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison.

Last year, an independent prison oversight group called The Correctional Association of New York released a report on the Marcy Correctional Facility.

It noted complaints of “rampant” physical abuse by staff members, with 80% of incarcerated people reporting having witnessed or experienced abuse and nearly 70% reporting racial discrimination or bias.

In response to the video, the union that represents workers at the prison said: “What we witnessed is incomprehensible to say the least and is certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day.”

It adding what transpired is the “opposite of everything [the union] and its membership stand for.”

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Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world’s best golfer to undergo surgery

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Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world's best golfer to undergo surgery

The world’s best golfer has suffered a freak injury while cooking Christmas dinner, forcing him to undergo surgery.

Scottie Scheffler sustained a puncture wound after cutting the palm of his right hand on broken glass.

The world number one required surgery as small glass fragments remained in the palm after the accident.

The injury has forced him out of the first tournament of the season, next week’s The Sentry in Hawaii.

Scottie Scheffler. Pic: Reuters
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Pic: Reuters

But the 28-year-old has been told he will recover in three to four weeks, and he hopes to be back in action at The American Express tournament in California on 16 January.

Scheffler won an Olympic gold and seven PGA Tour titles in the last year and was recently named PGA Tour’s Player of the Year for a third season in a row.

In May, he was arrested by police during the US PGA Championship after he was accused of trying to drive around a traffic jam caused by a fatal accident.

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Spectators wore Free Scottie t-shirts and one wore an orange jumpsuit. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
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Scheffler’s arrest became a major story at the US PGA Championship. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters

Just hours later, he was released and allowed to return to Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky to play his second round of the tournament.

Criminal charges against Scheffler were later dismissed due to a lack of evidence and a police officer who arrested him was disciplined for not having his bodycam on at the time of the incident.

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Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

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Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

The man accused of burning a woman to death on a New York subway train has been indicted on murder and arson charges.

Sebastian Zapeta is accused of setting a sleeping woman on fire and then fanning the flames with a shirt, which caused her to be engulfed by the blaze.

He allegedly sat on a platform at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station, opposite the stopped train, and watched as she burned to death.

Authorities are still working to identify the victim.

Zapeta, 33, has been charged with one count of first degree murder, two counts of second degree murder and one count of arson in the first degree.

After a brief hearing in which the indictment was announced, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said: “This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system.”

Mr Gonzalez said police and medical examiners are using fingerprints and advanced DNA techniques to identify the victim, while also retracing her steps before the murder.

“Our hearts go out not only to this victim, but we know that there’s a family,” he said. “Just because someone appears to have been living in the situation of homelessness does not mean that there’s not going to be family devastated by the tragic way she lost her life.”

Police officers patrol the F train platform at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
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Officers patrol the platform where the woman died. Pic: AP

Zapeta was initially charged with murder and arson in a criminal complaint earlier this week.

Such filings are often a first step in the criminal process because all felony cases in New York require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial, unless a defendant waives that requirement.

Zapeta was not present at the hearing. The most serious charge he is facing carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole and the indictment will be unsealed on 7 January.

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Zapeta is a Guatemalan who entered the US illegally having already been deported in 2018, officials say.

He was taken into custody last Sunday, after three children called 911 when they recognised him from an image shared by police.

During questioning, prosecutors say he claimed not to know what happened, and noted he consumes alcohol – but did identify himself in photos and videos showing the fire being lit.

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