[MUSIC FADES IN]
Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Wednesday, October 26th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news, and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
In states where abortion is now banned or significantly limited, people who still want an abortion are finding a simpler, safer way than in the pre-Roe era. They're turning to a mostly word-of-mouth network of people mailing abortion pills.
Caroline Kitchener: Well, what I found in my reporting was that after Roe was overturned, a lot of volunteers all over the country, a lot of people, mostly women, all over the country, felt really moved to do something.
That's Caroline Kitchener. She covers abortion for "The Washington Post." Kitchener recently wrote about a 25-year-old who found out that she was pregnant. She didn't want to be, and she was in a state that had banned abortion.
Kitchener: She was terrified. She didn't have the money to get out of state and she knew that she didn't want to continue the pregnancy. So she went on Reddit and she put out this call for help saying, "I don't know where else to turn. Can somebody help me?" And within a couple of hours, she got a message from an anonymous user whose name she didn't know and would never learn saying, "I can mail you these pills tomorrow."
The medication is the same two-step regimen that has FDA approval and is available with a prescription in some states. But to be clear, this isn't the same thing as pharmaceutical companies selling abortion pills by mail. Kitchener describes this as a community-run whisper network of sorts, which means it doesn't have the usual safeguards of medical oversight.
"The Post" spoke to some of the distributors. They said the pipeline usually starts in Mexico, volunteers pass the pills through the mail, and private donors fund it so distribution can be free.
Kitchener told us about one woman who got looped into this network: a nurse in a state that banned abortion. Soon after Roe was overturned, she was confronted by someone she had to turn away from the clinic.
Kitchener: And the woman came up to her and said, "I have the money. Can you order the pills for me?" And that wasn't really something that the nurse had ever considered before. Like obviously that's against the law in the state that she lives in. She could lose her nursing license. She could even go to jail.
The woman asking was an undocumented mother of four. She had a history of serious pregnancy complications and her husband didn't believe in abortion. The nurse felt conflicted.
Kitchener: In that moment, she decided she was just so furious with the way that things had gone, she wanted to do something. And so she agreed to order those pills for that one particular woman.
She tapped into this network and got the pills. She told "The Post" she wanted the politicians who made abortion illegal to feel like her patients had when their options were taken away: powerless.
[PENSIVE MUSIC]
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
Adidas is ending its longtime partnership with Kanye West, legally known as Ye. The company's announcement yesterday adds to the wave of other high-powered brands who've cut ties with him.
West has been making bigoted comments across TV, social media, and podcasts. This isn't entirely new behavior. But "Rolling Stone" argues that he's crossed a different kind of line this time and his reputation might never recover. So, if you haven't been following all of the Kanye West headlines, now's a good time to catch up.
Earlier this month at Paris Fashion Week, he wore a shirt that said, "White Lives Matter," and he was heavily criticized. People pointed out that's a phrase used by white supremacists. Later, in a bizarre and confusing "Fox News" interview, he seemed to embrace old antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish people secretly running the world. There were more antisemitic comments on Twitter and Instagram. Both platforms restricted his accounts.
And on the podcast "Drink Champs," West repeated a false theory claiming that George Floyd wasn't killed by a police officer, but by drug use. Floyd's family says it plans to sue West for defamation. On that same podcast, West addressed his comments about Jewish people.
[START DRINK CHAMPS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Kanye West: I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can't drop me. Now what?
[END DRINK CHAMPS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
As more disturbing incidents piled up, public pressure to hold West accountable grew. The talent agency CAA dropped him as a client. Major brands that had deals with him, like JPMorgan Chase, Balenciaga, and "Vogue," also cut ties. But the biggest blow was the announcement from Adidas yesterday. "Forbes" estimates that West had a net worth of $2 billion dollars and that his deal with Adidas was worth $1.5 billion of that.
Over the years, it's never been clear whether West was intentionally stirring up controversy to get publicity, or whether he couldn't help himself. But if these latest moves are part of a strategy, many of his old allies aren't sticking around for it. As "Rolling Stone" put it, he may have finally made himself "too radioactive" to touch.
[PENSIVE MUSIC]
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
We are now less than two weeks away from the midterms. The Democratic Party is making its closing pitch to voters for why Democrats should hold onto congressional control. That is the focus of our next episode in our special election series from "Apple News Today."
Basu: My colleague, Gideon Resnick, is back with me to talk about it. So, Gideon, what is the message that Democrats are offering voters right now?
Gideon Resnick: That is basically what I was wondering myself. So I asked Gabriel Debenedetti that very question. He is my guest for this episode. He is a national correspondent for "New York" magazine covering Democrats. You know, he said it really depends a little bit on the race and where candidates are running. So there are legislative accomplishments from the Biden administration that you will hear Democrats talking about in a number of these races. Think about the infrastructure package, think of the Inflation Reduction Act. But then there is also this side of the conversation about more existential threats that could come as a result of Republicans gaining power in the view of these Democratic candidates. That includes conversations about election deniers, threats to democracy, and also the further erosion of reproductive rights. You know, it was quite notable recently that President Biden talked about codifying Roe v. Wade as the first priority of a larger Democratic majority next term. I think that really signaled a slight change in approach.
Basu: So, how are all these different messages resonating with voters?
Resnick: It's tricky. So Debenedetti was saying that candidates in a lot of these races are dealing with the problem of not breaking through what is on the front of a lot of people's minds. Right? Which is the economy, which is inflation.
[START APPLE NEWS TODAY CLIP]
Gabriel Debenedetti: If you talk about the infrastructure package and how the administration was able to get this across the line in a bipartisan manner, or if you talk about the massive amount of climate spending, these are things that voters say that they care about a lot. But what they tend to care about more on a proximate basis is: How much are gas prices? What is inflation looking like?
[END APPLE NEWS TODAY CLIP]
Resnick: So, that is still really, really front and center for a lot of people. You add on the fact that typically midterms are bad for the sitting president, and it's easy to see why conditions have really started to move in Republicans' favor in a lot of respects.
Basu: So given all of that, where are we seeing President Biden throwing his weight in these last few weeks before the election?
Resnick: Yeah, it's a little interesting. He was recently in Pennsylvania where there is a critical Senate race with Democrat John Fetterman. But Debenedetti noted that Biden is not doing a lot of these big rallies in a lot of places because, frankly, it wouldn't really help Democrats in tough races, whether they are saying that explicitly or not. So instead, for some of these contests, take Georgia and Wisconsin for example, former President Obama is actually planning to go instead and do some of those events.
Basu: Well, Gideon, thank you so much.
Resnick: Yeah, thank you.
[MUSIC FADES IN]
You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're listening on the News app now, we'll queue up that special episode about Democrats and the midterms to play next. So enjoy that listen and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
[MUSIC FADES OUT]