Home News 3 Stories You Should Read 4/29/2018: Lis Smith, Letitia James, Dr. Kristyn Brandi

3 Stories You Should Read 4/29/2018: Lis Smith, Letitia James, Dr. Kristyn Brandi

by Confluence
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In the category of:  Truth matters.

What’s missing from the conversation about late abortions, explained by a doctor

Abortion opponents are accusing doctors of infanticide. Here’s the reality of abortion late in pregnancy, according to a doctor.

Dr. Kristyn Brandi is a New Jersey OB-GYN with fellowship training in family planning, and a board member of Physicians for Reproductive Health. As a doctor, she delivers babies and cares for pregnant women, and also performs abortions. She told me that because of today’s legal requirements for abortion procedures, it’s essentially impossible for a baby to be born alive after a failed abortion, and that equating late abortion with infanticide is insulting to patients, many of whom are grieving the end of a much-wanted pregnancy.

Trump and others describe “late-term abortion” (which, Brandi explains, is not a medically accurate term) as something that can happen at 40 weeks’ gestation, even when a woman is in labor.

In reality, as Brandi told Vox in February, “patients do not request abortion when they are in labor and doctors do not provide it.” More than 90 percent of abortions happen within the first trimester of pregnancy. But some patients do get abortions after that, in the second and third trimesters (about 1.4 percent of abortions happen at 21 weeks’ gestation or later, according to Planned Parenthood). Brandi explained to me what happens during those procedures, why patients seek them, and what the current political debate about them is missing. Our conversation, via phone and email, has been edited and condensed.

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In the category of:  The NRA

Trump accuses New York attorney general of illegally investigating NRA

President Donald Trump on Monday accused the New York attorney general’s office of illegally investigating the National Rifle Association and called on the group, which has been roiled by a leadership fight, to “get its act together quickly.”

“The NRA is under siege by (New York Gov. Andrew) Cuomo and the New York State A.G., who are illegally using the State’s legal apparatus to take down and destroy this very important organization, & others,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “It must get its act together quickly, stop the internal fighting, & get back to GREATNESS – FAST!”
On Saturday, New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office announced in a statement it had launched an investigation into the NRA and had issued subpoenas to the organization, but did not confirm what the probe was in regard to.
The investigation comes after a dispute between the group’s president, Oliver North, and chief executive officer, Wayne LaPierre, in which North accused LaPierre of financial misconduct, including the improper use of $200,000 of NRA funds to purchase clothing from an NRA vendor, according to the Wall Street Journal.

 
 
 

In the category of:  The woman behind the man.

‘I Want Him on Everything’: Meet the Woman Behind the Buttigieg Media Frenzy

How hard-charging New York operative Lis Smith helped turn an obscure Indiana mayor into a national

The speed with which Buttegieg emerged has been astonishing, which happens to be the speed at which Smith works. Schmuhl, his campaign manager, says a typical scene from the trail for the three of them is arriving 10 or 15 minutes early to the airport gate, and while he and Buttegieg—who he’s known since 8th grade in Indianatake a moment to relax for a minute before boarding, Smith will head to the airport bar with her laptop and phone and begins texting and emailing reporters and clapping back to critics on social media. The candidate and the campaign manager dutifully board the aircraft, and just when it seems the door is about to close, as they start looking around nervously, in comes Smith, sunglasses and coat still on, laptop and cords dangling from her arms, phone pressed against her ear.

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