Missouri
Abortions canceled again after ruling from state high court
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Planned Parenthood halted abortions in Missouri on Tuesday after the state’s top court ordered new rulings in the tumultuous legal saga over a ban that voters struck down last November.
The state’s top court ruled that a district judge applied the wrong standard in rulings in December and February that allowed abortions to resume in the state. Nearly all abortions were halted under a ban that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
In Tuesday’s two-page ruling, the court ordered Judge Jerri Zhang to vacate her earlier orders and reevaluate the case using the standards the court laid out. Zhang ruled that she was allowing abortions to resume largely because advocates were likely to prevail in the case eventually. The Supreme Court said it should first consider whether there would be harms from allowing abortions to resume.
The state emphasized in their petition filed to the state Supreme Court in March that Planned Parenthood didn’t sufficiently prove women were harmed without the temporary blocks on the broad swath of laws and regulations on abortion services and providers. On the contrary, the state said Zhang’s decisions left abortion facilities “functionally unregulated” and women with “no guarantee of health and safety.”
Among the regulations that had been placed on hold were ones setting cleanliness standards for abortion facilities and requiring physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at certain types of hospitals located within 30 miles (48 kilometers) or 15 minutes of where an abortion is provided.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement that “today’s decision from the Missouri Supreme Court is a win for women and children and sends a clear message — abortion providers must comply with state law regarding basic safety and sanitation requirements.”
Planned Parenthood maintains that those restrictions were specifically targeted to make it harder to access abortion.
Still, the organization — which has the state’s only abortion clinics — immediately started calling patients to cancel abortion appointments at Missouri clinics in Columbia and Kansas City, according to Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains.
Wales said it’s a familiar but disappointing position for the organization.
“We have had to call patients in Missouri previously and say you were scheduled for care, your appointment is now canceled because of political interference, new restrictions, licensure overreach by the state,” she said. “To be in that position again, after the people of Missouri voted to ensure abortion access, is frustrating.”
Wales said Planned Parenthood hopes to be back in court soon.
Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri, said he was “extremely excited” by the Supreme Court order.
“This means that our pro-life laws, which include many health and safety protections for women, will remain in place,” Lee said. “How long they will remain we will have to see.”
Missouri is the only state where voters have used a ballot measure to overturn a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. The Republican-controlled state government pushed back in court against allowing abortions to resume — something that didn’t happen until more than three months after the amendment was adopted.
Since then, lawmakers have approved another ballot measure for an amendment that would reimpose a ban — but with exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. It could be on the ballot in 2026 or sooner.
Before Tuesday’s ruling, 12 states were enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy and four more had bans that kicked in at around six weeks — before women often know they’re pregnant.
North Carolina
Iranian pleads guilty to ransomware attacks on cities
WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — An Iranian national pleaded guilty on Tuesday in North Carolina federal court for his role in a ransomware and extortion operation that prosecutors say targeted computer networks for Baltimore and other U.S. cities, a scheme that led to work disruptions and financial losses.
Sina Gholinejad, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud and abuse and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. A plea hearing for Gholinejad had been scheduled for Tuesday morning before U.S. District Judge Richard Myers in Wilmington. Gholinejad faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, with a sentencing hearing set for August, the release said.
The Justice Department said court documents and statements made in court show Gholinejad and unidentified coconspirators caused cyberattacks in which they encrypted files on the targeted networks with the RobbinHood ransomware variant to extort ransom payments. Attack recipients included city governments of Greenville, North Carolina in April 2019, and of Baltimore a month later. Corporations and other entities were targeted.
Baltimore officials at the time of the attack said hackers had demanded the city pay the equivalent of $76,000 in bitcoin, which city leaders refused to pay. The city lost more than $19 million from damage to its network and resulting disruption to city services for months, including online processing of property taxes, water bills and parking citations, the news release said. Conspirators used the damage to threaten subsequent victims, according to prosecutors. Other cities targeted included Gresham, Oregon, and Yonkers, New York.
“These ransomware actors leveraged sophisticated tools and tradecraft to harm innocent victims in the United States, all while believing they could conduct their illegal activities safely from overseas,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge James Barnacle Jr. of the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office, which helped investigate the case.
According to the government, Gholinejad and coconspirators began cyberattacks in January 2019 by accessing victim computer networks and copying information from the infected networks to private servers they controlled.
Gholinejad had been accused of seven criminal counts in an April 2024 sealed indictment now made public by the Justice Department. Myers unsealed the case on Tuesday, although the plea agreement documents remained inaccessible, according to the defendant’s online case file.
Acting U. S. Attorney Daniel Bubar for the Eastern District of North Carolina, whose office prosecuted the case, said “cybercrime is not a victimless offense — it is a direct attack on our communities.” The FBI’s Baltimore office and the National Security Cyber Section of the U.S. Justice Department’s National Security Division also participated in pursuing the case.
Abortions canceled again after ruling from state high court
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Planned Parenthood halted abortions in Missouri on Tuesday after the state’s top court ordered new rulings in the tumultuous legal saga over a ban that voters struck down last November.
The state’s top court ruled that a district judge applied the wrong standard in rulings in December and February that allowed abortions to resume in the state. Nearly all abortions were halted under a ban that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
In Tuesday’s two-page ruling, the court ordered Judge Jerri Zhang to vacate her earlier orders and reevaluate the case using the standards the court laid out. Zhang ruled that she was allowing abortions to resume largely because advocates were likely to prevail in the case eventually. The Supreme Court said it should first consider whether there would be harms from allowing abortions to resume.
The state emphasized in their petition filed to the state Supreme Court in March that Planned Parenthood didn’t sufficiently prove women were harmed without the temporary blocks on the broad swath of laws and regulations on abortion services and providers. On the contrary, the state said Zhang’s decisions left abortion facilities “functionally unregulated” and women with “no guarantee of health and safety.”
Among the regulations that had been placed on hold were ones setting cleanliness standards for abortion facilities and requiring physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at certain types of hospitals located within 30 miles (48 kilometers) or 15 minutes of where an abortion is provided.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement that “today’s decision from the Missouri Supreme Court is a win for women and children and sends a clear message — abortion providers must comply with state law regarding basic safety and sanitation requirements.”
Planned Parenthood maintains that those restrictions were specifically targeted to make it harder to access abortion.
Still, the organization — which has the state’s only abortion clinics — immediately started calling patients to cancel abortion appointments at Missouri clinics in Columbia and Kansas City, according to Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains.
Wales said it’s a familiar but disappointing position for the organization.
“We have had to call patients in Missouri previously and say you were scheduled for care, your appointment is now canceled because of political interference, new restrictions, licensure overreach by the state,” she said. “To be in that position again, after the people of Missouri voted to ensure abortion access, is frustrating.”
Wales said Planned Parenthood hopes to be back in court soon.
Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri, said he was “extremely excited” by the Supreme Court order.
“This means that our pro-life laws, which include many health and safety protections for women, will remain in place,” Lee said. “How long they will remain we will have to see.”
Missouri is the only state where voters have used a ballot measure to overturn a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. The Republican-controlled state government pushed back in court against allowing abortions to resume — something that didn’t happen until more than three months after the amendment was adopted.
Since then, lawmakers have approved another ballot measure for an amendment that would reimpose a ban — but with exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. It could be on the ballot in 2026 or sooner.
Before Tuesday’s ruling, 12 states were enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy and four more had bans that kicked in at around six weeks — before women often know they’re pregnant.
North Carolina
Iranian pleads guilty to ransomware attacks on cities
WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — An Iranian national pleaded guilty on Tuesday in North Carolina federal court for his role in a ransomware and extortion operation that prosecutors say targeted computer networks for Baltimore and other U.S. cities, a scheme that led to work disruptions and financial losses.
Sina Gholinejad, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud and abuse and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. A plea hearing for Gholinejad had been scheduled for Tuesday morning before U.S. District Judge Richard Myers in Wilmington. Gholinejad faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, with a sentencing hearing set for August, the release said.
The Justice Department said court documents and statements made in court show Gholinejad and unidentified coconspirators caused cyberattacks in which they encrypted files on the targeted networks with the RobbinHood ransomware variant to extort ransom payments. Attack recipients included city governments of Greenville, North Carolina in April 2019, and of Baltimore a month later. Corporations and other entities were targeted.
Baltimore officials at the time of the attack said hackers had demanded the city pay the equivalent of $76,000 in bitcoin, which city leaders refused to pay. The city lost more than $19 million from damage to its network and resulting disruption to city services for months, including online processing of property taxes, water bills and parking citations, the news release said. Conspirators used the damage to threaten subsequent victims, according to prosecutors. Other cities targeted included Gresham, Oregon, and Yonkers, New York.
“These ransomware actors leveraged sophisticated tools and tradecraft to harm innocent victims in the United States, all while believing they could conduct their illegal activities safely from overseas,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge James Barnacle Jr. of the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office, which helped investigate the case.
According to the government, Gholinejad and coconspirators began cyberattacks in January 2019 by accessing victim computer networks and copying information from the infected networks to private servers they controlled.
Gholinejad had been accused of seven criminal counts in an April 2024 sealed indictment now made public by the Justice Department. Myers unsealed the case on Tuesday, although the plea agreement documents remained inaccessible, according to the defendant’s online case file.
Acting U. S. Attorney Daniel Bubar for the Eastern District of North Carolina, whose office prosecuted the case, said “cybercrime is not a victimless offense — it is a direct attack on our communities.” The FBI’s Baltimore office and the National Security Cyber Section of the U.S. Justice Department’s National Security Division also participated in pursuing the case.
