On today’s show: A woman in Texas died after being told by the hospital that it would be a “crime” to intervene in her miscarriage. ProPublica has her story. No matter who wins the presidency, they will be leading a divided America. The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser and New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker explain why on this week’s episode of Apple News In Conversation. The Arizona Republic’s Sasha Hupka takes us inside Arizona’s remarkable election. Plus, NBC News explains why Young Thug changed his plea to guilty in Georgia’s longest-running criminal trial. USA Today explains how Halloween helped change daylight saving time. And The Athletic looks at how “shoe doping” changed marathon times forever — in ways we still don’t fully understand. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What happened to Joseli Bornica in Texas?
This was before Roe v. Wade was overturned, but that year Texas banned abortions after six weeks. Joseli began to miscarry at 17 weeks, but the hospital wouldn't intervene because of the new state law.
Chapter 2: How did Texas's abortion ban affect reproductive care?
She goes to the hospital hoping to get the help that she desperately needed and was made to wait 40 hours before she ended up spontaneously miscarrying her child.
Chapter 3: What were the circumstances surrounding Joseli's miscarriage?
That's Cassandra Jaramillo, who reported this story for ProPublica.
And what her husband shared with us that he learned from her was that when she first shows up to the hospital, they tell her that there's nothing that they can do, that it would be illegal to intervene because her fetus, although she was going to lose that pregnancy, still had a heartbeat.
Three days later, Joseli died of an infection.
Chapter 4: What did ProPublica reveal about Joseli's death?
This woman wanted her pregnancy. She did not want an abortion. However, the abortion ban in Texas is written in such a way that puts miscarriages in a gray area.
ProPublica had more than a dozen doctors review her medical records, and they all say Joseli's death could have been prevented. Experts Jaramillo spoke with say the hospital should have opted to speed up the delivery or perform an abortion to prevent complications. Now Joseli's husband is a single father raising their four-year-old on his own.
And it wasn't until ProPublica reported this story that the husband fully understood what had happened to his wife.
Joseli's husband, he always felt like something had gone terribly wrong, but he did not understand the landscape of laws that were changing in that time or what was the standard of care that his wife should have received.
As I mentioned, the law that was in place when all of this happened was from 2021, before Roe v. Wade was overturned. After that Supreme Court ruling, Texas went even further, banning abortions entirely and making it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion, except in some rare instances.
No doctor has been prosecuted for violating the state ban, but doctors and hospitals say they're often unsure how to navigate this. Senator Ted Cruz, who's in a competitive race this Tuesday, was asked about Joe Selle's case this week by a reporter with KXAN following the publication of ProPublica's story.
Well, listen, I've read the story here, and the facts of the case seem heartbreaking. That this woman lost her life is truly a tragedy. The Texas law makes clear that any procedure that is necessary to save the life of a mother can be done and should be done.
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Chapter 5: What is the current state of abortion laws in Texas?
We don't know all the details of what happened here, but it is critical that we do everything necessary to save the lives of moms, and we grieve with the family at the tragedy that occurred here.
According to studies done in the aftermath of the 2021 law, Texas's abortion ban has been linked to a rise in both maternal and infant deaths. In these last few days of voting, former President Trump and Vice President Harris are making their final pitches to the American people. But no matter who wins, our next president will have the difficult task of trying to unify a divided nation.
I've never seen it. I've covered politics 38 years and studied elections for long before that. I cannot think of an election that was this close, this close to election day.
That's Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times. He and Susan Glasser, a staff writer at The New Yorker, sat down with me for Apple News in conversation. And they say they see no candidate, whether it's Harris or Trump or anyone else in American politics, who can bring the country together in this moment.
Chapter 6: How are political leaders responding to reproductive rights issues?
When you say that the other team, it's not that you disagree about what kind of health care system anymore to have in our country. We're now telling our own voters they are an existential threat to the nation. They will destroy America.
I think it's going to be very impossible when now we've had multiple elections in a row in which the other party is being described as an existential level event for the United States.
And as so many of us have personally experienced, this type of fear of the other side is literally tearing us, our families, and our communities apart.
Chapter 7: What are the implications of the 2021 Texas abortion law?
The polls show we don't even want to talk to people who are on the other side. You know, they used to do polls back in the early 60s. They asked, would it bother you if your son or daughter married somebody from the other party? And about 4% or 5% at the time said, yes, today it's closer to 50%, right? I don't want no Republican at my Thanksgiving table.
I don't want no Democrat coming for Christmas. We don't want to be communicating with the other. And we're not communicating with each other. And therefore, having this conversation means you're on one side or the other. It's us versus them.
When I asked Susan and Peter where they think this is all heading, they said there's no real bounce back from this.
We're now looking at, I think, a next wave of political realignment in this country of which, you know, Trump has profited from, capitalized from, and arguably accelerated. And so we don't quite know exactly where that realignment will go, but it will continue.
Chapter 8: How is political division impacting healthcare discussions?
You can hear much more of my conversation with Peter and Susan in our latest episode of Apple News in Conversation. We talk about the stakes for all of us in this election and the inevitable transformation ahead. If you're listening in the Apple News app right now, stick around after today's show. That episode is queued up to play for you next.
Let's turn now to Arizona, one of the battleground states that'll likely decide the election, as it did in 2020. Then, President Joe Biden narrowly won the state, and former President Trump and his allies tried to delay the counting of votes and even the certification of results. It turned Arizona into an epicenter for misinformation about the election.
As election denialism persists today, officials in the state have worked hard to prepare for this election in new ways. Sasha Hupka reports on election administration for the Arizona Republic, and she told us about the kinds of things election workers are doing to keep things running smoothly for voters.
You can expect to see a very heavy security presence and then also communication. You know, your larger counties are looking to give voters accurate information about voting and the counting process, but they're also looking to respond to misinformation online and sometimes from major political figures.
Part of that beefed up security includes new election buildings with cameras and bulletproof glass. Taxpayer money has gone toward hiring temporary staff to help process ballots smoothly. Now, there's another wrinkle this year. The ballot in certain Arizona counties has attracted a lot of attention and in some cases concern.
Like in Maricopa County, where roughly two-thirds of all Arizona voters live, their ballot is two pages long, with the presidential race, judge seats, and over a dozen ballot measures involved. Election officials have encouraged voters planning to cast their ballot in person to arrive at the polls well-researched and ready to vote.
And on election night itself, Arizona officials are telling locals and people across the county watching the results to remember it usually takes the state a long time to count their votes. Hupka said the expectation is that Maricopa County could take 10 to 13 days. We'll see initial results on election night from early and in-person voters.
Part of the holdup is that all the early ballots that get dropped off at voting sites need to get processed and go through signature verification, which can take some time. The more last-minute ballots they get, the longer it'll take. Election officials told Hupka by providing additional transparency and staffing up, overall they're feeling confident in their preparations.
And that's prepared both on a technical level just to administer the election, but also from a security perspective. You know, we're going to see national attention here and they know that and they tell me that they're ready for it.
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