Life under Tennessee’s strict abortion law

Good morning. It's Tuesday, February 20th. I'm Mark Garrison, in for Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Coming up, a court ruling threatens the future of IVF, inside the collapse of a Gaza hospital, and the unusual and innovative way Los Angeles is dealing with heavy rain.

But first, it's been nearly impossible to get an abortion in Tennessee since 2022. It has one of the strictest laws in the country. And once a child is born, the state provides very little support for new parents. "ProPublica" reporter Kavitha Surana spent one year following Mayron Hollis, a mother of four who found out just a few months after giving birth to her youngest, Zooe, that she was pregnant again.

Doctors told Mayron that she had a very dangerous pregnancy. The embryo was implanted in the scar tissue from her recent C-section and that could rupture her uterus or cause massive bleeding and she could even die. They knew that it would also be unlikely that the fetus would ever make it to term.

At the time, she was fighting the state to keep custody of Zooe. Mayron was three years sober after a lifetime battle with drugs, and the state had already taken custody of her other children over child welfare concerns. Mayron wanted to end her high-risk pregnancy, but she was blocked by the state's abortion ban. She delivered three months early. Her daughter, Elayna, weighed less than two pounds and had to spend several months in the ICU.

So, you had this mother who went back to work three weeks after her traumatic surgery and is sometimes sleeping in her car outside the hospital just so that she can see her daughter. After Elayna came home, she was on oxygen and a feeding tube for months. And she was actually eligible for certain services like having nurse visits and more substantial disability payments. But what we observed, I mean, it was such a testament to how difficult it is to access these benefits.

Surana told us Mayron shared deeply personal details and allowed ProPublica to follow her family's struggles because she felt it was important that the world know the consequences of Tennessee's policy.

She wanted people to know they forced me, basically, to have a child, but then they didn't help me take care of that child.

You can read Mayron's entire story and see pictures of her

and her family on the Apple News app. Now, let's take a quick look at some other stories in the news. In Alabama, a court's unprecedented ruling that frozen embryos are people

is raising concerns about the future of IVF. It involved a wrongful death case where a patient mistakenly dropped and destroyed frozen embryos. The court ruled that they could be held liable because the state's law, quote, "applies to all children, born and unborn." Alabama's Medical Association had warned that a ruling like this could make IVF more expensive and force clinics there to shut down or move out of state.

Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gathered outside a London court, which is hearing, what could be, his last chance to avoid extradition to the U.S. He's wanted in America for trial over leaking military secrets. The first leaks were in 2010. U.S. authorities have been trying to get a hold of him ever since. Assange took refuge for seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London before local police arrested him.

If he loses in court this time, Assange could be handed over to America in a matter of weeks. The United Nations is expected to vote today on a resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The U.S. has signaled it'll veto it, saying that could jeopardize peace talks.

"Reuters" reports that the U.S. is instead proposing a resolution that would call for a temporary ceasefire and oppose a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah. One of the greatest humanitarian concerns right now is the hospital system in Gaza. There's a particular focus on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. It's the second largest in Gaza.

[SPEAKING ARABIC]

Israel said Hamas was holding hostages at Nasser Hospital, which Hamas denied. Israel also said it was working to limit civilian harm and allow the hospital to keep functioning. But Gaza's health ministry, the UN and doctors say that's not true. They described catastrophic conditions and several patient deaths at a hospital that has effectively ceased to function.

It is a real horror, what was happening. I'm shouting, we are screaming, and I'm telling you, and I ask the leaders of this world, how many videos do you have to see us killing, seeing us, seeing this real genocide happening in front of your eyes, and nothing, nothing. Just silence, just silence.

He and others from the hospital made it to Rafah. Around 1.5 million people are with them, having fled heavy fighting elsewhere in Gaza. But it could soon become much more dangerous. As we've talked about, Israel promises a major ground offensive there next month,

at the start of Ramadan, if Hamas does not release all remaining hostages. At times lately, nearly everyone in California has been under flood alerts. Heavy rainfall is expected to continue.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass recently spoke to a local "ABC" station about the week's weather conditions.

We are prepared, but I do still worry because the hills have not dried out from the last storm. And so, of course, every time there's a rain that's going to be heavy, we have to worry about mudslides.

She's talking about preparation for the immediate effects of heavy rain. But in recent years, L.A. has also prepared in another way. "WIRED" looks at how it's done work to become what urban planners call a sponge city. That's a place that can gather rainwater in a way that helps the community in the long term. Historically, L.A. has relied on snowmelt and river water brought in from far away, but it's working to source more water locally.

old systems aren't working anymore. Current weather is pretty rough for Angelenos, but the city's trying a new way to deal with it, and attacking another problem at the same time. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a Narrated Article coming up next from "New York Magazine." It's about financial scams. And if you think that only naive people fall for them, you'll want to hear this.