THE WEEKLY REVEAL

Hello! In this issue:

• The transportation errors that put organ transplant patients in danger.
   
• The mounting risks outside abortion clinics and the lawmakers and leaders taking action.
   
• With the news of the migrant tragedy in San Antonio this week, a look back to a 2018 story of a family that waited 10 years to learn of their father’s death.

THIS WEEK’S PODCAST

Lost in Transplantation

On any given day, there are more than 100,000 people on the waiting list for a donated heart, liver or kidney. Quickly delivering donated organs to patients is a matter of life and death. Yet transportation errors are leading to delays in surgeries, putting patients in danger and making some organs unusable.

This week on Reveal, we look at weaknesses in the nation’s system for transporting organs and solutions for making it work better.

This episode originally was broadcast Feb. 8, 2020.

THE LATEST

Abortion Providers Ask for Protection as They Prepare for Post-Roe Harassment and Violence
By Laura C. Morel

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is expected to trigger a new wave of clashes as abortion is certain or likely to be banned in 26 states and the remaining open clinics will offer anti-abortion protesters and extremists fewer and clearer targets.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been on alert for an increase in political violence since May, according to a leaked memo. It was already happening even before the court’s ruling: On May 25, an arson was reported at a building set to become Wyoming’s only clinic providing surgical abortions. On New Year’s Eve, a fire destroyed a Planned Parenthood in Tennessee. 

Some lawmakers and leaders have been heeding the warnings:

• In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in May that the state will dedicate $10 million toward security for abortion care providers and an additional $25 million to expand abortion access.

• In Maine, state legislators passed a law in April that creates 8-foot “medical safety zones” around clinic entrances. 

• In May of last year, Louisville, Kentucky, passed legislation that created 10-foot safety zones for all health care facilities.

And after we spotlighted a surge in harassment, disturbances and violence at abortion clinics around Florida, one Jacksonville clinic has been assigned an on-duty officer every day.

“We are about to face a sea change in this nation unlike anything we have ever seen, certainly when it comes to gender equality and reproductive health care,” said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, which advocates for legislation to protect abortion rights. “We would encourage states and localities to look at all of their options and to really be creative in this moment and also to really be proactive.”

MORE ON REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

From Our Archives

Fifty-three people have died as a result of being abandoned inside a sweltering tractor-trailer in San Antonio on Monday. The victims, along with the survivors, were citizens of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and were smuggled into the United States. Federal officials have said it is the single deadliest migrant smuggling case in U.S. history, and authorities are still working to identify all the victims.

The Associated Press spoke to relatives of the victims and described a common narrative of why many put their lives in the hands of smugglers: to pursue a better life in the U.S.

In 2018, Reveal senior reporter Aura Bogado detailed the other side of what happens when a loved one leaves for the U.S. but is never heard from again. Eliseo Cárdenas Zetina disappeared after trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in 2008. Relatives tried to dissuade him from making the trek, but he’d made up his mind to go north for work. 

Cárdenas Zetina’s five children held out hope that their dad was still alive. But in March 2018, Los Armadillos, a volunteer group that scours the southern border to find people who are lost or died crossing into the U.S., found his remains and laminated identification card in a cave in Arizona. The group posted snapshots of the ID card and more on Facebook, and that’s how Cárdenas Zetina’s son, Eliseo Cárdenas Sánchez, learned his father had died almost a decade earlier. Read the full story.

In Case You Missed It

Ending on a Good Note

It’s been an eventful 2022 so far and a particularly busy June with several investigations and follow-up stories published. Our reporters have been sharing their findings with local and national news outlets and organizations. Here’s a roundup of some of their appearances from the past few weeks.

🎧 Aura Bogado was on KJZZ, Phoenix’s NPR station, to discuss her investigation into how migrant children’s shelters are ill-equipped to handle serious mental health episodes, leaving children to bear the tremendous toll. Listen. 

📽️ Reveal’s Roy W. Howard fellow, Grace Oldham, appeared on Democracy Now! to discuss how she and Reveal data reporter Dhruv Mehrotra found that Facebook is collecting ultra-sensitive personal data about abortion seekers and enabling anti-abortion organizations to use that data as a tool to target and influence people online. Watch.

Grace and Dhruv also shared their findings in a National Press Foundation panel centered on how journalists should best communicate the effects of Roe v. Wade being overturned to women, families and communities. Watch.

📽️ Michael Montgomery is part of the award-winning team that unearthed the exploitative labor practices of sugar producer Central Romana Corp. in the Dominican Republic. He joined his fellow team members, Sandy Tolan and Euclides Cordero Nuel, on an Overseas Press Club of America panel to share advice on collaboration and staying safe while on the ground in a foreign country. Watch.