Julia Jacobs and Matt Stevens

<h1>A doctor with the Department of Veterans Affairs was shot in the neck when a patient in a wheelchair opened fire Wednesday evening in the emergency room of a VA hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, the authorities said.</h1>

The suspect, Lawrence Bon, 59, had been at West Palm Beach VA Medical Center since early in the morning and had been “combative” with employees all day, Special Agent Michael Leverock, an FBI spokesman, said in a phone interview. Bon began shooting a pistol at about 6:20 p.m., while he was undergoing a psychological evaluation, Leverock said.

The injured doctor, whose named was not released, was shot while trying to subdue Bon, who is a double amputee. Another hospital employee was grazed by a bullet, Leverock said. The employees’ injuries were not life-threatening.

Bon spent a very short time in the military in the mid-1970s, Leverock said, and his amputations were unrelated.

The doctor who was shot was taken to another hospital for treatment, said Mary Kay Rutan, a spokeswoman for the medical center’s network. The facility was secure and would be operational Thursday, she said.

The FBI took over the investigation of the shooting because it occurred in a federal building, Leverock said. Bon was scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday.

The West Palm Beach VA Medical Center, about 75 miles north of Miami on Florida’s eastern coast, is a general medical, psychiatric and surgical facility, according to its website.

The 153-bed facility opened in 1995 and “provides health services to veterans throughout South Florida,” both at the main facility in West Palm Beach and six contractor-operated outpatient clinics, a 2017 report said. The facility also operates a 108-bed “community living center” and a 13-bed “blind rehabilitation service,” according to the report. During the 2017 fiscal year, the facility served about 60,000 veterans, the report said.

The West Palm Beach VA Medical Center is one of about 170 medical centers and nearly 1,000 clinics run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Together, they treat about 9 million veteran patients each year.

The VA is a regular target of ire for some veterans; some are angry about delays, others fume over rulings on monthly disability compensation; some see the department as a stand-in for a nation they feel has served them poorly after they came home from war.

This article originally appeared in <a id="51ddc0eb-44fe-4231-a434-14052549b6b4" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/us/shooting-florida-veterans-affairs.html">The New York Times</a>.

Patient shoots doctor at Florida veterans affairs hospital, officials say

The suspect, Lawrence Bon, 59, had been at West Palm Beach VA Medical Center since early in the morning and had been “combative” with employees all day, Special Agent Michael Leverock, an FBI spokesman, said in a phone interview.

<h1>The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a Louisiana law that its opponents say would leave the state with a single doctor authorized to perform abortion, the latest development in the national legal fight over the fate of abortion law under a conservative-leaning court.</h1>

Louisiana’s law, which requires that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, was enacted in 2014. But in recent days and weeks, there has been a flurry of new state legislation that could prove important if the nation’s highest court rules on more abortion-related cases.

Since the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in July, abortion rights groups have warned of a threat to Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that made abortion legal nationwide, prompting some states to try to shore up access to the procedure. Anti-abortion groups have been pushing for more restrictions.

Here is the status of some recent state abortion legislation.

Legislators try to limit abortion access

In some states, lawmakers have sought to pass laws that would ban or severely restrict abortion in the event that Roe v. Wade is eventually overturned or effectively gutted.

This week, lawmakers in Tennessee introduced a bill that would ban abortion in the state if the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe.

Similarly, in South Carolina, state lawmakers have introduced personhood legislation, which would establish that the “right to life” and the rights of due process and equal protection “vest at fertilization for each born and preborn human being.”

Lawmakers in Arkansas are further along. On Thursday, the Arkansas Senate passed a bill by a 29-6 vote that would likewise prohibit abortions in the state if Roe were declared unconstitutional. The bill, as with the one in Tennessee, allows for exceptions in situations where the abortion is necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.

States seek to shore up abortion rights

In other states, lawmakers have moved to do the opposite if Roe is overturned.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Reproductive Health Act on Jan. 22, the 46th anniversary of the Roe decision. The new law permits abortion after the 24th week of a pregnancy when there is “an absence of fetal viability or the abortion is necessary to protect the patient’s life or health.”

A law introduced by a Democratic lawmaker in Virginia would also have reduced restrictions on late-term abortions to protect the mother’s health, and would have decreased the number of physicians whose opinions were required to approve an abortion to one from three. The bill was set aside in committee.

At the State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Donald Trump scorned New York’s legislation, erroneously claiming that it “would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth.” Trump also asked Congress to ban “late-term abortion,” a phrase used by abortion opponents to refer to abortions performed after about 21 weeks of pregnancy; such abortions are rare.

Where the country stands

Nine states have laws that protect the right to abortion, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health organization that supports abortion rights. Those includes states like California, Connecticut and Maryland, which permit abortion before the fetus’s viability or when the procedure is necessary to protect the mother’s health.

On the other side of the issue, 18 states have laws that could be used to restrict the legality of abortion in the event that Roe was overturned. Half of those states — including Arizona, Michigan and Oklahoma — have retained abortion bans passed in the pre-Roe era, in some cases forbidding the procedure unless the life of the woman is at risk.

Additionally, there are several abortion cases before federal appeals courts. All of them have the potential to reach the Supreme Court.

This article originally appeared in <a id="1e670b4d-96f6-4cf2-9a98-a14bf8f39cfa" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/us/us-abortion-laws.html">The New York Times</a>.

With abortion in spotlight, a flurry of legislation across the country

Louisiana’s law, which requires that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, was enacted in 2014.

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Julia Jacobs and Matt Stevens

Articles written by the author

Patient shoots doctor at Florida veterans affairs hospital, officials say

With abortion in spotlight, a flurry of legislation across the country