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For years tourists have ridden boats through this sacred Australian natural wonder. A new ban will stop them in their tracks

The Horizontal Falls are one of Australia’s strangest natural attractions, a unique blend of coastal geography and powerful tidal forces that visitors pay big money to see up close.

But all that is about to change.

Located at Talbot Bay, a remote spot on the country’s northwestern coastline, the falls are created when surges of seawater pour between two narrow cliff gaps, creating a swell of up to four meters that resembles a waterfall.

For decades, tours have pierced these gaps on powerful boats, much to the dismay of the area’s Indigenous Traditional Owners, who say the site is sacred.

It’s not the only reason the boat tours are controversial. In May 2022 one boat hit the rocks resulting in passenger injuries and triggering a major rescue operation. The incident led to calls to halt the tours for safety reasons.

Although the boat trips have continued, the concerns of the Indigenous Traditional Owners have now been heeded, with Western Australia, the state in which the falls are situated, saying they will be banned in 2028 out of respect.

Close-up views still permitted

Tourists on a speedboat race across the Horizontal Waterfalls in Talbot Bay, Western Australia. - Jeff Mauritzen/Design Pics Editorial/Getty Images — Tourists on a speedboat race across the Horizontal Waterfalls in Talbot Bay, Western Australia. – Jeff Mauritzen/Design Pics Editorial/Getty Images

Not everyone is happy with the move. The WA Tourism Council, which represents tourism businesses in the state, has warned it will deter visitors and cause major job losses.

But it’s been welcomed by the Dambeemangaddee people, who’ve inhabited this area for 56,000 years and believe boats desecrate the falls.

Located in the Kimberley Region, 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) north of the state capital Perth, the Horizontal Falls are within Maiyalam, one of three protected marine parks created in 2022 that were co-designed, and now co-managed, by Traditional Owners and the WA Government.

The move by the Western Australian government comes amid criticism over its commitment to protecting Indigenous sites in a state that relies heavily on mining.

Talbot Bay’s main boat tour operator, Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures, will cease traversing the falls in March 2028, with all other operators to stop by the end of 2026.

After the ban takes effect, boats will still be allowed to cruise Talbot Bay, offering visitors a close-up view of the cascading spectacle that British naturalist David Attenborough has called “Australia’s most unusual natural attraction.”

“This decision reflects the government’s dual responsibilities to respect the cultural views of Traditional Owners and the need to protect and support WA’s tourism industry,” said WA Environment Minister Reece Whitby in a statement.

“We want people to experience Indigenous culture as an essential, vibrant part of visiting jointly managed national and marine parks across Western Australia.”

The Dambeemangaddee are among dozens of Indigenous peoples who inhabited WA for more than 50,000 years before Australia was violently colonized by the British in the 1780s. Countless parcels of Indigenous-controlled land were then seized or defiled.

‘Respect the power of this place’

After the ban takes effect, boats will still be allowed to cruise Talbot Bay, offering visitors a close-up view of the attraction. - Jeff Mauritzen/Design Pics Editorial/Getty Images — After the ban takes effect, boats will still be allowed to cruise Talbot Bay, offering visitors a close-up view of the attraction. – Jeff Mauritzen/Design Pics Editorial/Getty Images

The Horizontal Falls ban aims to restore the sanctity of this site. According to local Indigenous beliefs, boats that pierce these gaps disturb Woongudd, the mystical serpent who created this wonder.

Woongudd’s story features in the Dreamtime, an ancient collection of tales and principles that have defined Australian Aboriginal culture. The rushing tide at the falls is said to be caused by Woongudd gliding between the cliffs.

Since the 1990s, Traditional Owners have expressed concerns that boat tours are damaging this “powerful, sacred place,” the Dambeemangaddee said in a group statement, responding to the ban.

“This has been an emotionally trying journey for many of us,” they wrote. “With this decision, we finally feel we have been heard. Our ancestors lived there all year round, and we still feel their presence. It is a quiet, calm place. But it can be dangerous. Culturally, Traditional Owners would only travel through the (cliff) gaps for a specific purpose and always at the right time.”

The Dambeemangaddee emphasized they hope tourists continue to visit the Horizontal Falls. They believe tourists can be dazzled by its tidal forces while maintaining a polite distance.

“Respect the power of this place, and our cultural obligations to care for Country and keep you safe,” they asked of visitors, referring to their ancient role as custodians of Australia’s landscape.

In preparation for the Horizontal Falls ban, the Dambeemangaddee stated they have begun creating new videos and brochures that will explain their culture and spiritual connection to Talbot Bay. They also are creating fresh tours, welcome ceremonies, and a visitor management plan for the location.

Critics fear ban will reduce visitor numbers

Other attractions in the Kimberley region include the Bungle Bungles, a UNESCO-listed site. - Tourism Australia — Other attractions in the Kimberley region include the Bungle Bungles, a UNESCO-listed site. – Tourism Australia

Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures said in a statement it will transition to a “culturally appropriate program that will allow visitors to experience the spectacular natural wonder of the Horizontal Falls in a respectful context”.

The falls boat ban was criticized by Tourism Council WA CEO Evan Hall, who said this activity had long attracted visitors to the Kimberley. He added that banning it would impact 15 tourism operators, and cause the estimated loss of 58 full-time jobs in the region.

“By traversing the falls, visitors experience the awesome nature of this unique environment,” Hall said in a statement earlier this month.

“It’s not something that can be experienced from the sideline. National Parks are public land and waters that belong to everyone. The legislative objective of National Parks includes promoting and facilitating nature-based tourism and public recreation – this is not achieved by restricting visitor access.”

However, the ban was supported by Kimberley Day Cruise CEO Sally Shaw, who told CNN the company’s Horizontal Falls tours only venture near, not between these cliff gaps. She says piercing the falls is both dangerous and disrespectful to its Traditional Owners.

“We do not traverse the falls because of safety and cultural reasons and have never done this on our tour,” Shaw said.

“Most people who do these tours have cultural understanding and recognize the future is a sustainable national treasure we can all appreciate in safety.”

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‘It’s about time:’ France considers a law to ban hair discrimination

Lawmakers in France’s lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill that would ban discrimination over the texture, length, color or style of someone’s hair.

The bill’s authors hope the groundbreaking bill sends a message of support to Black people and others who have faced hostility in the workplace and beyond because of their hair.

But the measure still faces a long road ahead. It goes to the Senate next, where it could face opposition.

While only 50 of the National Assembly’s 577 lawmakers were on hand for the vote, they overwhelmingly backed the bill in a 44-2 vote. There were four abstentions.

Supporters of the measure outside parliament were overjoyed that the bill made it to the legislative body.

“It’s about time,” exclaimed Estelle Vallois, a 43-year-old consultant getting her short, coiled hair cut in a Paris salon, where the hairdressers are trained to handle all types of hair — a rarity in France. “Today, we’re going even further toward taking down these barriers of discrimination.”

The draft law echoes similar legislation in more than 20 U.S. states. The bill was proposed by Olivier Serva, a French lawmaker from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. He says that if it eventually becomes law, it would make France the first country in the world to recognize discrimination based on hair at a national level.

“This is a great step forward for our country,” Serva said after the vote. “France has done itself proud.”

Olivier Serva, a deputy of the National Assembly, at the National Assembly in Paris, March 27, 2024. — Olivier Serva at the National Assembly in Paris where he is a deputy.Thibault Camus / AP

The bill would amend existing anti-discrimination measures in the labor code and criminal code to explicitly outlaw discrimination against people with curly and coiled hair or other hairstyles perceived as unprofessional, as well as bald people. It doesn’t specifically target race-based discrimination, though that was the primary motivation for the bill.

“People who don’t fit in Eurocentric standards are facing discrimination, stereotypes and bias,” Serva, who is Black, told The Associated Press.

Leftist parties and members of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party Renaissance have supported the bill, which was enough to get it through the National Assembly. The bill is now headed for the conservative-dominated Senate, where it will likely face opposition from right-wing and far-right lawmakers who see it as an effort to import U.S. concepts about race and racial discrimination to France.

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Lion and Rhino Breeding Ban Approved by South African Cabinet

(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s cabinet approved a phased end to the captive breeding of lions and rhinos as the country seeks to end practices that have sullied its reputation as a custodian of some of the world’s biggest wildlife populations.

Worldcoin hit with another ban order in Europe citing risks to kids

Controversial crypto biometrics venture Worldcoin has been almost entirely booted out of Europe after being hit with another temporary ban — this time in Portugal. The order from the country’s data protection authority comes hard on the heels of the same type of three-month stop-processing order from Spain’s DPA earlier this month.

Portugal was one of just two European countries left where Worldcoin was still operating its proprietary eyeball-scanning orbs after Spain’s ban. This leaves Germany as the only market where it’s currently able to harvest biometrics in Europe as privacy watchdogs take urgent action to respond to local concerns.

Portugal’s data protection authority said it issued the three-month ban on Worldcoin’s local ops Tuesday after receiving complaints Worldcoin had scanned children’s eyeballs.

Other complaints cited in its press release announcing the suspension, which it notes was issued Monday, also mirror Spain’s DPA’s concerns — including insufficient information being provided to users about the processing of their sensitive biometric data; and the inability of users to delete their data or revoke consent to Worldcoin’s processing.

The venture’s use of blockchain technology to store tokens derived from scanned biometrics means the system is designed to retain personal data permanently — without recourse for people to erase their information after the fact.

By contrast, EU data protection law gives people in the region a suite of rights over their personal data, including the ability to have data about them corrected, amended or deleted. So there’s an inherent legal conflict with Worldcoin’s approach — even before you consider other problematic issues like the quasi-financial incentive it offers to encourage people to get scanned; the highly sensitive biometric data involved; and its overarching goal of building and operating an identity layer for “humanness”.

The controversial project is backed by Sam Altman, of OpenAI fame, who is simultaneously supercharging the boom in generative AI tools that are making it harder for people to distinguish between artificial (machine-produced) and human activity online in the first place. Next stop: Rent collection on every online human on Earth?

The Portuguese authority, the CNPD, said it took action after receiving “dozens” of complaints about Worldcoin last month.

It estimates more than 300,000 people in Portugal have submitted to having their irises scanned by its proprietary Orbs in exchange for some Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency also devised by the company, noting that the number of locations where it was offering eyeball-scanning almost doubled in six months. It added that the large influx of people trying to take up the offer of cryptocurrency in exchange for an eye-scan led to Worldcoin instigating a pre-booking system for scanning in the market.

On risks to children’s data, the CNPD notes Worldcoin’s orb operators had no age verification in place — suggesting it was not taking robust steps to prevent children from accessing the technology.

“Biometric data qualifies as special data under GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] and therefore enjoys increased protection, with the risks of its treatment being high,” it wrote [in Portuguese, this is a machine translation]. “On the other hand, minors are particularly vulnerable and are also subject to special protection under national and European law, as they may be less aware of the risks and consequences of the processing of their personal data, as well as their rights.”

The Portuguese authority gave Worldcoin 24 hours to comply with the local stop processing order.

Given the Worldcoin.org website no longer includes Portugal in the dwindling list of countries where eyeball scans can be booked (as noted above Germany is the only European country left, alongside Argentina, Chile, Japan, Singapore and the US) it appears to have complied with the deadline.

Coincidentally or not, Germany is the EU market where Worldcoin developer, Tools for Humanity, has a regional base. Its co-founder, Alex Blania, is also German. Bavaria’s data protection authority, which leads on data protection oversight of the company and has been investigating Worldcoin since last year, has yet to take any public intervention despite peer authorities in Southern Europe making urgent interventions to protect citizens in their own markets.

Worldcoin failed to get an injunction against the Spanish order earlier this month, although its appeal against the DPA’s action continues. It’s not clear whether it intends to try to appeal Portugal’s order.

Tools for Humanity was contacted for a response to the latest ban order in the EU.

We also reached out to the Bavarian DPA for an update on its investigation. As Tools for Humanity’s lead DPA, under the one-stop-shop (OSS) mechanism in bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it is responsible for investigating privacy and data protection complaints about the company.

This structure means the Bavarian DPA will produce a draft decision on its Worldcoin GDPR investigation for peer authorities to review. Other authorities will then have the chance to object if they do not agree with its findings. The regulation requires majority backing for decisions on cross-border cases, which allows for weaker enforcements to be overruled where there is a consensus that stronger measures are warranted. This in turn allows for forum shopping risks inherent to the GDPR’s OSS mechanism to be mitigated, albeit over a longer time-frame.

The GDPR’s Article 66 powers, which both Spain and Portugal are using to issue their temporary, local bans on Worldcoin, also provide authorities with tools to respond to urgent risks in cases where a lead authority has yet to act and/or is dragging its feet.

Although neither have explicitly called out the Bavarian authority for taking too long. But the fact of them making urgent interventions speaks volumes.

“Given the current circumstances, in which there is an illegality in the processing of biometric data of minors, associated with potential violations of other GDPR standards, the CNPD understood that the risk to citizens’ fundamental rights is high, justifying urgent intervention to prevent serious or irreparable harm,” the Portuguese authority noted, saying it will continue to investigate Worldcoin’s local activity.

In a statement, the CNPD’s president, Paula Meira Lourenço, added: “This order to temporarily limit the collection of biometric data by the Worldcoin Foundation is, at this moment, an indispensable and justified measure to obtain the useful effect of defending the public interest in safeguarding fundamental rights, especially of minors.”

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South Korea says Myanmar arms ban in place after U.N. concern

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea said on Wednesday its ban on the sale of arms to Myanmar remained in place even though it had invited an envoy appointed by its military rulers to an event promoting the sale of weapons.

Thomas Andrews, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, had expressed “extreme concern” that the Myanmar ambassador, Thant Sin, attended the event hosted by South Korea’s foreign ministry in May, saying it had legitimised the junta and raised doubts about South Korea’s ban.

Myanmar has been in crisis since the military ousted an elected government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, with most Western governments isolating the generals and cutting off arms sales but others, including Russia and China, maintaining close relations.

“Our government has been still strictly implementing countermeasures against Myanmar since they were announced shortly after the outbreak of the crisis, including a ban on exports of military supplies, and there is no change in this position,” the South Korean ministry said in a statement.

Andrews had said in a letter to South Korea’s diplomatic mission in Geneva that the envoy’s “participation in the event legitimises an illegal and brutal military junta”.

The invitation to Thant Sin also “raises doubts” about South Korea’s ban on arms exports to Myanmar and could imply its intention to permit the sale, despite the junta’s responsibility for attacks on civilians, Andrews said.

South Korea’s Geneva-based diplomatic mission said last month the invitation was sent to all countries in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in line with “established practice” and was “absolutely unrelated” to its policy towards Myanmar’s military.

Close U.S. ally South Korea had not conducted any arms transactions with Myanmar since 2019 but operates major development projects there.

Andrews, following a visit to South Korea in November, urged it to take even stronger action to deny the Myanmar junta legitimacy and help reverse the crisis.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; editing by Robert Birsel)

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Texas judge temporarily exempts women with complicated pregnancies from state abortion ban

Women in Texas with complicated pregnancies will be exempted from a state abortion ban under a temporary injunction issued on Friday, with the judge citing a lack of clarity on the ban’s medical exemptions.

Travis County District Court Judge Jessica Mangrum in her ruling sided with women and doctors who sued Texas over the abortion ban.

“The Court finds that there is uncertainty regarding whether the medical exception to Texas’ abortion bans … permits a physician to provide abortion care where, in the physician’s good faith judgment and in consultation with the pregnant person, a pregnant person has a physical emergent medical condition,” Mangrum said in the ruling.

The temporary injunction will stand until the lawsuit against Texas is complete, unless a higher court intervenes. The injunction is expected to be appealed.

The judge ruled that doctors cannot be prosecuted for application of “good faith judgment” for provision of abortions for physical medical conditions including: those that pose infection risk or make pregnancy unsafe, where the fetus is not likely to survive the pregnancy after birth, and where a medical condition cannot be effectively treated during pregnancy or requires “recurrent pervasive intervention.”

“Today’s ruling alleviates months of confusion around what conditions qualify as medical emergencies under Texas’ abortion bans, giving doctors permission to use their own medical judgment in determining when abortion care is needed,” the Center for Reproductive Rights, the group that brought this lawsuit, said in a statement.

Several women who said they were denied abortions despite grave risk to their lives sued the state of Texas in March, in the first apparent case of pregnant women suing over curbs imposed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

The injunction is effective immediately. The judge set a trial date of March 25.

Abortion was banned with very limited exceptions in Texas.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year stripped away national abortion rights. State legislatures are wrestling with how much to restrict or expand abortion access after that decision.

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Oregon lifts ban on self-serve gas, leaving N.J. as the only state prohibiting it

For the first time in more than seven decades, drivers in Oregon are allowed to pump their own gas.

Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek signed a bill on Friday that lets drivers choose between dispensing fuel themselves or having an attendant pump the gas for them.

The new law, which takes effect immediately, leaves New Jersey as the only state that prohibits self-service gas stations. Still, stations in Oregon will not be allowed to have more self-service pumps than ones designated for full service.

The state’s 72-year ban on self-service pumps was due in large part to safety concerns for drivers. A state law cited “increased risk of crime and the increased risk of personal injury resulting from slipping on slick surfaces.”

The state Legislature sent the self-service legislation to the governor’s desk this summer. The state Senate passed the bill in June in a 16-9 vote, three months after the House passed the measure 47 to 10.

State Sen. Lew Frederick, a Democrat who opposed the legislation, said in a floor speech in June that the move would make it more difficult for the elderly to get help pumping gas and lead to job loss.

“I have personally had to get out and pump gas for elderly folks in other states whom I witnessed were not able to get the assistance they were legally entitled to,” Frederick said. “Oregon flies with her own wings. I am not convinced that just because other states do something, we have to as well.”

Oregon had made some exceptions to the ban, particularly in rural areas. Friday’s bill signing lifts the restrictions statewide.

Mike Freese, a lobbyist for Oregon Fuels Association, testified earlier this year in support of lifting the ban, telling a legislative committee that employee shortages had made it hard to keep some stations open.

“It is no secret that Oregon has unique gas fueling laws,” Freese told legislators. “Nevertheless, as explained by gas station owners, finding employees to pump gas is extremely hard – and even impossible in some cases – which in turn makes it impossible to keep gas stations open and operating.”

Enactment of the Oregon law means New Jersey is the only state that does not allow self-service pumps. The state’s ban dates back to 1949.

Zoë Richards

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A judge has ruled Texas’ abortion ban is too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge ruled Friday the state’s abortion ban has proven too restrictive for women with serious pregnancy complications and must allow exceptions without doctors fearing the threat of criminal charges.

The ruling is the first to undercut Texas’ law since it took effect in 2022 and delivers a major victory to abortion rights supporters, who see the case as a potential blueprint to weaken restrictions elsewhere that Republican-led states have rushed to implement.

“For the first time in a long time, I cried for joy when I heard the news,” lead plaintiff Amanda Zurawski said in a statement. “This is exactly why we did this. This is why we put ourselves through the pain and the trauma over and over again to share our experiences and the harms caused by these awful laws.”

The challenge is believed to be the first in the U.S. brought by women who have been denied abortions since the Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, which for nearly 50 years had affirmed the constitutional right to an abortion.

The state is expected to seek a swift appeal and has argued that Texas’ ban already allows exceptions, calling doctors’ fears of prosecution unfounded.

“Today’s ruling should prevent other Texans from suffering the unthinkable trauma our plaintiffs endured,” said Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which helped bring the lawsuit. “It would be unconscionable for the State of Texas to appeal this ruling.”

The immediate impact of State District Judge Jessica Mangrum’s decision was unclear in Texas, where all abortion clinics have shuttered in the past year. During two days of emotional testimony in an Austin courtroom, women gave wrenching accounts of learning their babies would not survive birth and being unable to travel long distances to states where abortion is still legal.

The court has been clear: doctors must be able to provide patients the standard of care in pregnancy complications. That standard of care in certain cases is abortion because it is essential, life-saving healthcare. This decision is a win for Texans with pregnancy complications, however Texas is still denying the right to abortion care for the vast majority of those who seek it.”

The challenge, filed in March, does not seek to repeal Texas’ abortion ban, but instead aims to force more clarity on when exceptions are allowed under the law, which is one of the most restrictive in the U.S.

Under the law in Texas, doctors who perform abortions risk life in prison and fines of up to $100,000. Opponents say that has left some women with providers who are unwilling to even discuss terminating a pregnancy.

The majority of U.S. adults, including those living in states with the strictest limits on abortion, want it to be legal at least through the initial stages of pregnancy, according to a poll released in late June by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

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Indiana near-total abortion ban seems set to take effect

Indianapolis — Indiana’s six abortion clinics have stopped providing abortions ahead of the state’s near-total abortion ban officially taking effect and as a petition pends before the state’s high court asking it to keep the ban on hold while legal action continues, clinic officials said Tuesday.

Planned Parenthood’s four Indiana abortion clinics stopped performing abortions Monday in accordance with state guidance that providers received in July alerting them that on or around Tuesday, abortions would become illegal in Indiana in clinic settings “with really very, very limited exceptions,” said Rebecca Gibron, CEO of the Planned Parenthood division that includes Indiana.

Indiana’s two other abortion clinics have also stopped providing abortions, with one calling it “a dark day for Indiana.”

Indiana’s Republican-backed ban will end most abortions in the state, even in the earliest stages of a pregnancy. Indiana became the first state to enact tighter abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court ended nearly a half-century of federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

Although Planned Parenthood’s four Indiana abortion clinics have stopped providing abortions, Gibron said its 11 health centers across the state continue offering a wide range of services including emergency contraception and birth control, even as the group works to help Hoosiers obtain out-of-state abortions.

“Planned Parenthood will not be intimidated and bullied and we will not be silenced,” she said at a news conference outside one of the group’s clinics that provided abortions in Indianapolis.

“When radical extremists on the Supreme Court overturned the 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion last year, they plunged our nation into a health care crisis,” she said, according to CBS Indianapolis affiliate WTTV. “Until today, Indiana was the region’s pivotal state for preserving abortion access for people in the region. Our appointments were booked out for months but now extremists are taking away abortion care in Indiana.”

Indiana’s ban will eliminate the licenses for all seven abortion clinics in the state – one of which closed in June – and ban most abortions, even in the earliest stages of a pregnancy. It includes exceptions allowing abortions at hospitals in cases of rape or incest before 10 weeks post-fertilization. It also allows abortions up to 20 weeks to protect the life and physical health of the mother or if a fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly.

Abortions performed under any other circumstances would result in criminal penalties for the physicians involved and could result in the revocation of their medical licenses, WTTV reported.

Before Indiana’s ban was passed, the state’s laws generally prohibited abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and tightly restricted them after the 13th week.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, representing Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinic operators, challenged the ban’s constitutionality. But in a June 30 ruling, the Indiana Supreme Court found that the ban doesn’t violate the state constitution. Its ruling struck down a preliminary injunction that had kept the ban on hold, although that ruling has yet to be certified to officially take effect.

On Monday – the last day for it to do so – the ACLU of Indiana filed a petition for a rehearing with the high court asking it to keep the ban on hold while it pursues a narrower preliminary injunction in a trial court to address the scope of the ban’s exemption allowing women facing serious health risks to obtain abortions.

That filing delays the certification of the court’s ruling while it considers whether to grant or deny that petition, said court spokesperson Kathryn Dolan. It’s unclear how long it may take the high court to decide the matter. But the state attorney general’s office, which had 15 days to respond to the rehearing request, filed it Tuesday, urging the court to “promptly deny plaintiffs’ groundless and exceedingly calculated rehearing petition” and calling it “a transparent attempt” to delay certification of the court’s ruling.

Attorney General’s office spokeswoman Katlyn Milligan said in a statement Tuesday that, “On the eve of Indiana’s pro-life law going into effect, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood made a desperate attempt to prevent Indiana from enforcing our own law. We responded to this filing immediately and are now waiting for the Court to rule.”

Planned Parenthood ended abortion services at its four clinics Monday in light of the state’s guidance and the uncertainty over when the court will certify its abortion ban ruling, Gibron said.

“The reality is that it can happen at any point. The Supreme Court could certify it this (Monday) afternoon,” she said.

Gibron said Indiana’s abortion ban will “target Hoosiers of color, indigenous communities and those already marginalized by our health care system.”

Indiana’s two other abortion clinics, which aren’t operated by Planned Parenthood and are both located in Indianapolis, have also stopped providing abortion care.

In a statement, Clinic for Women owner LaDonna Prince said the clinic ended abortions on Monday and called it “a dark day for Indiana and for the country.”

The state’s other abortion clinic, Women’s Med, stopped providing abortions on Friday, a representative said Tuesday.

Although Planned Parenthood’s Indiana abortion clinics are no longer performing abortions, Gibron said a “patient navigation team” is working to help patients get out-of-state abortions. That includes helping schedule appointments and finding ways to help them pay the costs of traveling out of state.

Adjacent Illinois and Michigan – states where abortion remains legal – will most likely become the destinations for many Indiana residents seeking out-of-state abortion care, said Gibron, who is CEO for Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois had prepared for years for the possibility of Roe v. Wade falling, and it opened clinics near the Indiana and Wisconsin borders in 2018 and 2020 in anticipation of those states restricting access to abortion, said Kristen Schultz, the affiliate’s chief strategy and operations officer.

She said the number patients from Indiana nearly doubled after the state’s ban briefly went into effect last September and that traffic is expected to rise again starting this week. Schultz said more doctors, advanced nurse practitioners and medical assistants have been hired to accommodate the expected surge.

“The demand has increased, the challenges have increased when patients show up at our doors having traveled eight or ten or 12 hours. That’s an increased burden on the patient. And our staff really feel that,” she said.

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Incandescent light bulb ban goes into effect, fueling money-, environment-saving switch to LEDs

A federal rule that took effect on Tuesday will largely consign one of the world’s great inventions — the incandescent light bulb — to the technological dustbin.

The rule from the U.S. Department of Energy bans the production and sale of classic light bulbs in the U.S., encouraging consumers to switch to newer, more efficient LED lights.

Using LEDs can help conserve both the environment and consumers’ money. American households could save roughly $100 a year, or $3 billion collectively, by phasing out incandescent bulbs in their homes, the DOE’s projections show. The switch could also reduce carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over 30 years, the Department of Energy said in a statement after passing the rule last spring.

LEDs outshine on price and durability

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, are lighting products that pass an electrical current through a microchip, which illuminates tiny diodes, resulting in a visible light, according to government-backed electronics-rating organization Energy Star. LEDs are 90% more efficient than incandescent light bulbs, the Department of Energy says on its website. They also can last up to 25-times longer than traditional light bulbs.

Those features could translate into major savings for consumers who make the switch to LEDs. The average American household spends more than $4,400 a year on utility bills, with electricity accounting for 23% of that bill, according to data from moving company, Move.org. In addition, roughly one-third of American households neglected food- and medicine-related expenses to pay their electricity bills as energy inflation sent energy costs skyrocketing, a 2022 study from Lending Tree shows.

However, those advantages haven’t enabled LEDs to eclipse other lighting products’ popularity with American consumers. LEDs account for less than half of lighting products in American households, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey shows.

Electricity bills expected to go up this summer

04:50

Pushback against LEDs

While LEDs have advantages over Thomas Edison’s revolutionary design, they haven’t completely stolen the traditional light bulb’s shine.

Some consumers, like Tom Scocca, an editor who has written about LEDs, argue that the energy-efficient fixtures can’t replace incandescent light bulbs because they tend to lose their color and brightness over the years and aren’t quite compatible with dimmer switches.

“There is a world, almost within reach, in which LED lighting could be aesthetically fabulous,” Scocca wrote in an article for NY Magazine. “But right now, it’s one more thing that overpromises and underdelivers.”

Former President Donald Trump famously criticized LEDs.

“The bulb that we’re being forced to use, number one, to me, most importantly, I always look orange,” he said in 2019.

LEDs are still on the rise

Still, use of LEDs is on the rise.

The number of US households using LEDs as their main lighting source increased from 4% in 2015 to 47% in 2020, according to the EIA.

The market size of LEDs in the U.S. is estimated at $11.59 billion in 2023, and is projected to grow to $18.54 billion by 2028, data from market research consulting firm Mordor Intelligence shows.

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