Genetic abnormality abortion law blocked
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge blocked an Indiana law Thursday that would have banned abortions sought because of a fetus’ genetic abnormalities, saying that the state does not have the authority to limit a woman’s reasons for ending a pregnancy.
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt granted a preliminary injunction requested by Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, which argued that the law was unconstitutional and violated women’s privacy rights. The law was set to take effect Friday.
North Dakota is the only other state that prohibits abortions because of genetic abnormalities such as Down syndrome or because of the race, gender or ancestry of a fetus.
Pratt said the Indiana law would go against U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have declared states may not prohibit a woman from seeking an abortion before a fetus is able to live outside the womb. She also said the state had not cited any exceptions to that standard.
Tesla driver killed in crash using ‘Autopilot’
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first U.S. fatality using self-driving technology took place in May when the driver of a Tesla S sports car operating the vehicle’s “Autopilot” automated driving system died after a collision with a truck in Florida, federal officials said Thursday.
Preliminary reports indicate the crash occurred when a tractor-trailer rig made a left turn in front of the Tesla at an intersection of a divided highway where there was no traffic light, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. The Tesla driver died due to injuries sustained in the crash, which took place May 7 in Williston, Florida, the agency said. The city is southwest of Gainesville.
Tesla said on its website that neither the driver nor the Autopilot noticed the white side of the trailer, which was perpendicular to the Model S, against the brightly lit sky, and neither applied the brakes.
“The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer,” the company said.
Clinton and Lynch met privately at airport
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton spoke with Attorney General Loretta Lynch during an impromptu meeting in Phoenix, but Lynch said the discussion did not involve the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email use as secretary of state.
Lynch told reporters that the meeting at a Phoenix airport on Monday was unplanned and happened while the former president was waiting to depart and walked over to the attorney general’s plane after she landed there.
Lynch was traveling with her husband and said her conversation with the former president “was a great deal about his grandchildren” and their travels. The former president told her he had been playing golf in Arizona and they discussed former Attorney General Janet Reno, whom they both know.
“There was no discussion of any matter pending for the department or any matter pending for any other body. There was no discussion of Benghazi, no discussion of the State Department emails, by way of example,” Lynch said in Phoenix.
The exchange comes as the FBI is investigating the potential mishandling of sensitive information that passed through the server Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, used for personal and government correspondence as secretary of state.
