The Washington Post - 19.09.2019

A6 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 , 2019

BY ARIANA EUNJUNG CHA

A report by the Guttmacher
Institute released Wednesday
outlines dramatic changes in the
abortion landscape between 2011
and 2017. The U.S. abortion rate
has again hit an all-time low.
States passed an unprecedented
wave of 400 bills imposing re-
strictions on the procedure, and
medical abortions, which involve
taking pills rather than under-
going a surgical procedure, be-
came widely available.
The 48-page research docu-
ment, used by policymakers and
activists on both sides of the
debate, provides detailed infor-
mation by state and region about
how American women access
abortion.
There appears to be no clear
pattern between efforts to ban or
restrict abortion and the continu-

ing decline in abortion rates, which has been ongoing for nearly 40 years. Declines were seen across regions and in states that are more supportive of abortion rights as well as those that are more restrictive. “A ntiabortion activists are going to try to take credit for this decline, but the facts don’t sup- port their argument,” Rachel Jones, principal research scien- tist for Guttmacher, which sup- ports abortion rights, said in a call with reporters. The report estimated that the abortion rate in 2017, the most recent year studied, dropped to about 13.5 abortions per 1, women 15 to 44 years old. That compares with 14.6 in 2014 and 16.9 in 2011. It is the lowest rate recorded since the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized abortion nationwide through the

landmark decision Roe v. Wade. In total, 862,320 abortions to ok place in 2017 at health-care facilities. About 339,640 of those were medical abortions, which involve taking pills to induce miscarriage, as opposed to tradi- tional surgical abortion. Guttmacher said it was impos- sible to identify exactly what factors are driving the declines but pointed to fewer pregnancies, contraceptive access and use, a decline in sexual activity and infertility as possible causes. Re- searchers noted the possibility that the drop is not as big as it appears due to a potential increase in self-managed abortion, which is not reflected in the data. Self-managed abortions are those that occur outside of health-care settings and might include the use of medication, herbs or other methods without the direct su-

pervision of a medical profes- sional. Guttmacher noted that 32 states enacted restrictions during that time, such as waiting periods, parental consent for mi- nors or ultrasound requirements. Nearly every state had lower abortion rates regardless of whether the state had passed any laws related to abortion access. Some states with new restrictions saw their abortion rates increase. Many of the new restrictions have not gone into effect or have gone into effect temporarily due to court action. In April, for example, the Kansas Supreme Court blocked a law that banned the most common procedure for second-trimester abortions. It was the first state to try to stop this technique. And in July, a federal judge in Arkansas tempo-

rarily blocked three n ew a bortion restrictions, including one that requires the physician perform- ing an abortion to be board-certi- fied, which probably would have resulted in the state’s only clinic having to close. The U.S. Supreme Court in May went in the other direction, upholding part of a law signed by Vice President Pence when he was the governor of Indiana that requires the fetal remains from an abortion to be buried or cre- mated. The data is a few years behind and does not include the effect of unprecedented state efforts this year to ban abortion at six weeks — in some cases, without excep- tions for rape and incest. The information from 2017 also pre- dates many efforts by the Trump administration, including restrictions to the Title X family

planning p rogram that prompted Planned Parenthood to refuse millions of dollars in funding. The Guttmacher report provides a glimpse at how deep the divide has grown among states. Between 2011 and 2017, the number of clinics increased in the Northeast and the West but de- clined in the Midwest and the South. No s tate is without an abortion clinic, but five — North Dakota, Kentucky, Mississippi, West Vir- ginia and Kansas — had just one at the time of the report. (Kansas now has four abortion providers, and Missouri has one.) The change in abortion rates shows dramatic state-by-state variation. In Virginia, it fell 41.5 percent, for example, but ticked up slightly in New Jersey and the District. [email protected]

Report: U.S. abortion rate drops to lowest level on record since Roe v. Wade

BY JOHN HUDSON AND JOHN WAGNER

President Trump named Rob- ert C. O’Brien as his new national security adviser Wednesday as he seeks to realign his staff and temper internal divisions following the turbulent reign of former national security adviser John Bolton. The appointment of O’Brien solidifies the status of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as the most influential foreign policy voice in the administration. Pompeo has known O’Brien for years and backed his ascension to the job after battling with Bolton over an array of policy issues on Afghani- stan, Iran and North Korea, U.S. officials said. O’Brien, who served as the nation’s top hostage negotiator, will now take on a far more daunting set of responsibilities as Trump’s fourth national security adviser. He takes over amid esca- lating tensions with Iran, a high- stakes trade war with China and concerns about whether he wields enough clout to forge con- sensus among the U.S. government’s competing egos and agen- cies. But officials said they hoped his friendly demeanor and ex- perience as a lawyer could bring more stability and collegiality to an often chaotic policymaking process going into the 2020 election. “A major concern is cutting back on the drama,” s aid a senior U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak about internal dynamics. Trump praised his new pick in Los Angeles on Wednesday, saying O’Brien has “worked with me for quite a while now on hostages and we have a tremendous track record on hostages.” O’Brien called it a “privilege” t o take the adviser role and cited a number of “challenges” he would take on, including keeping Amer- ica safe and rebuilding the military. On the heightened tensions with Iran, he said that “we’re looking at those issues now” and that he would advise the president privately on how to handle the situation. Several officials said O’Brien would be less resistant to following the president’s o rders than his predecessor, who opposed Trump’s negotiations with North Korea, withdrawal plans in Af- ghanistan and interest in engag- ing with Iranian leaders. Although O’Brien is not known for sharing Bolton’s b rand of rigid unilateralism, his past writings have emphasized the importance of U.S. alliances and American global leadership, a viewpoint that could clash with aspects of Trump’s “America First” agenda. “Robert is strong on defense. He’ll be firm on China. He is a believer in American alliances. How similar is that to Bolton? I would leave it at t hat,” Kent Luck- en, a longtime friend of O’Brien’s who worked with him on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, said in a phone interview. A major question is whether O’Brien, whose personal history and rapport with the president has been limited, can formulate a coherent policy out of the president’s d esires while managing his advisers at the Pentagon, State Department and Treasury. “Without the power that re- sults from deep relationship with the president, a reputation among the national security community or deep expertise in government, a weak national security adviser causes disorder,”

warned John Gans, author of “White House Warriors,” a book on the history of the National Security Council. As evidence, Gans pointed to the Iran-contra affair of the 1980s and the role of President Ronald Reagan’s national security advisers, Bud McFarlane and John Poindexter, whose standing was weaker than that of their colleagues in the Cabinet. “A lthough most suspect it was the result of ambitions, Iran-contra was really the result of bad management: neither McFarlane nor Poindex- ter had the power to get princi- pals like Secretary of State George Shultz or Defense Secretary Cas- par Weinberger to stop arguing, President Ronald Reagan to stick with a decision, or the strong- willed staff to take no for an answer,” he said. Officials said a policy process that doesn’t create new competing factions would be welcome, particularly by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulva- ney, who observed the deep fis- sures between Bolton and senior Pentagon and State Department officials.

The position of national security adviser does not require Sen- ate confirmation. U.S. officials hope O’Brien's appointment will put an end to the rampant feuding between staff- ers for Pompeo and Bolton, who at times did not share information with each other out of suspi- cion that it would be used to undermine their positions ahead of a presidential policy decision. Two people who worked closely with O’Brien described him as a savvy “political animal” who had cultivated a close relationship with Pompeo on hostage related issues and had long sought a promotion within the Trump administration. They s aid having an ally in the White House would further strengthen the position of Pompeo, who has been more care- ful than any of his departed colleagues in refusing to break with Trump publicly. Besides O’Brien, Pompeo also maintains close ties to CIA Director Gina Haspel, who worked for him when he led the spy agency, and Defense Secre- tary Mark T. Esper, his former classmate at the U.S. Military Academy. Upon taking the job, O’Brien will become the highest-ranking Mormon in the U.S. government, an important development for a religious community that has shown some skepticism of Trump and will be a closely watched voting demographic in states such as Arizona. O’Brien convert-

ed from Catholicism in his 20s. During his work for the Trump administration, O’Brien has di- vided his time between Los Ange- les and Washington, maintaining his job at his law firm. According to his firm’s website, O’Brien has maintained a “robust” commer- cial litigation practice while serving as a special presidential envoy. The dual roles have prompted criticism from some of the families of detained Americans who have pushed for a swift return of their relatives, U.S. officials said. On Wednesday, he also received praise from current and former colleagues, including a former official in the Barack Obama administration. “A ll I have to say is that @robertcobrien is a really, really good person and that I wish him all the best in what will certainly be a challenging role,” tweeted Andrew Exum, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy. O’Brien has praised Trump for having “unparalleled success” in bringing home hostages, including the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson in Turkey and other Americans who were detained in the Middle East and South Asia. But his appearance in Sweden in July to monitor the trial of U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky raised eye- brows as critics assailed Trump for what they viewed as an inap- propriate intervention in an al- lied nation’s legal matters. Rocky was found guilty of assault this summer but received no addi- tional jail time. In Iran, O’Brien also has strug- gled to make progress in freeing U.S. detainees there, frustrating families seeking U.S. help. O’Brien’s prior work with the State Department included serving as co-chairman of its Public- Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2011. His law firm’s website notes that he served under two secretaries of state, Condoleezza Rice in the George W. Bush administration and Hillary Clinton in the Obama administration. The announcement of O’Brien’s appointment came a day after Trump publicly named five finalists for the position, none of whom were well-known. Bolton’s o uster last week ended a stormy tenure marked by wid- ening rifts between an unortho- dox president seeking a foreign policy victory and an irascible foreign policy hawk who had been deeply skeptical of much of the president’s agenda. Bolton’s opposition to el- ements of Trump’s approach on North Korea, Iran and Afghani- stan, among other issues, put him at odds with his boss and other advisers. Trump also largely blamed his third national security adviser for overselling the strength of Venezuela’s political opposition earlier this year. [email protected] [email protected]

Shane Harris and Anne Gearan contributed to this report.

Trump realigns national security sta≠

MANDEL NGAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had battled former national security adviser John Bolton over an array of foreign policy issues.

Naming of low-profile adviser swings power center behind Pompeo

BY MISSY RYAN, SHANE HARRIS AND JOHN HUDSON

In his 15 months as President
Trump’s special envoy for hos-
tage affairs, Robert O’Brien
forged a relationship with the
president as he worked to secure
the freedom of Americans locked
up abroad.
In turn, O’Brien helped Trump
accrue a record of hostage suc-
cesses that the president has
mentioned as proof of his inter-
national savvy.
Now, a s Trump’s n ational secu-
rity chief, O’Brien must leverage
that relationship as he tackles a
host of broader, more politically
fraught issues, including ten-
sions with Iran and strained
relations with European allies.
People close to some of the
hostages freed and their families
say they believe his appointment
might bring more attention to
their plight.
“We are hopeful that, given his
prior focus on hostage affairs, his
appointment will help to contin-
ue to make the safe return of
Americans held hostage and un-
lawfully detained abroad a prior-
ity for our government, as the
NSC’s role in this is so critical,”
the James W. Foley Legacy Foun-
dation said in a statement, refer-
ring to the National Security
Council. The group was set up to
honor journalist James Foley,
who was murdered by the Islamic
State, and to advocate on behalf
of those still held overseas.
Since the beginning of the
Trump administration, some 20
Americans have been released
from imprisonment or captivity
abroad, though it is difficult to
say whether O’Brien’s efforts
were pivotal in the release of
those freed under his watch.
Those individuals include An-
drew Brunson, a pastor held in
Turkey; Danny Burch, an engi-
neer jailed in Yemen; and Jamie
Sponaugle, a former Air Force
service member who was accused
of acting as a mercenary in Lib-
ya’s civil war.
O’Brien has shown himself to
be a skilled bureaucrat, develop-
ing a strong channel to top ad-
ministration officials and secur-
ing a role in policy deliberations
beyond hostage issues, the peo-
ple close to the families said.
But some from the families of
hostages have faulted O’Brien,
and the Trump administration,
for trumpeting the release of
others, including prominent ath-
letes and musicians, who are
detained by foreign governments
but aren’t considered hostages in
the same way that those whose

lives are at risk in the custody of militant groups or hostile re- gimes. Family members of American hostages, some of whose identi- ties are not widely known, were furious when O’Brien spent a week in Sweden monitoring the trial of American rapper A$AP Rocky, who was accused of vio- lent assault following a street fight in June. His trial became a media circus and attracted the attention of celebrities and Trump, who took personal interest in the issue after hearing from some of his famous friends. The family members said O’Brien, who has part-time status at the State Department, could have devoted the energy he spent monitoring the rapper’s public trial working to free people held without any official ac- knowledgment, whose cases have vanished from the headlines, said a person who worked with O’Brien. The incident may say less about O’Brien’s personal views about the rapper and more about how he, like other senior officials across the government, have found themselves immersed in initiatives that have seized the president’s attention. The rapper and two of his associates were allowed to leave Sweden and were later found guilty and given conditional sen- tences, meaning they faced no prison time in Sweden unless they committed another similar offense there. Trump appeared to take some credit for the release and sent tweets about the case, including one in which he said he would call Sweden’s prime minister “to see what we can do about helping A$AP Rocky.” A native of Los Angeles, O’Brien grew up Catholic but converted to Mormonism in his 20s after meeting his South Afri- can-born wife. During t he George W. Bush administration, he served in several diplomatic and international positions, working for a time with John Bolton, his predecessor as national security adviser, at the United Nations. A former major in the Army Reserve, O’Brien has also dab- bled in politics, serving as an adviser to Republicans Mitt Romney, Scott Walker and Te d Cruz.

In his 2016 book on American foreign policy, O’Brien described an erosion of U.S. influence under President Barack Obama, de- riding what he depicted as a “wishful thinking foreign policy approach” t hat had atrophied the military and ceded power to Chi- na and Russia. “I am certain the American people still believe in winning; that they still see our land as the ‘shining city on a hill,’ ” he wrote, predicting the United States was on the cusp of a “comeback” like the one he said o ccurred after the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. (O’Brien’s book received a pos- itive review from Richard Grenell, the then-Fox News con- tributor who is now Trump’s ambassador to Germany and was another official under consider- ation for the national security adviser job). “He’s definitely a conservative, but he’s a California conservative, so there’s a libertarian and hu- manitarian core to it,” said an individual who has interacted with O’Brien in his hostage envoy role and who, like other people who had worked with him, spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. After Trump’s election, according to people who know him and have worked with him, O’Brien was initially hoping to be nomi- nated as secretary of the Navy. Some State Department person- nel believed O’Brien, who had spent years working on foreign policy issues and paid especially close attention to naval matters, saw the hostage envoy position, which he eventually assumed in 2018, as a step toward a higher- level, more influential administration post. As hostage envoy, the person who worked with him said, O’Brien has been seen as sincere and personable in his interac- tions with families of Americans imprisoned overseas, “suggest- ing he’s got a high EQ,” or emo- tional quotient. At the State Department he became close to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose close ties to Trump may have helped him land the White House job. Pompeo praised O’Brien on Twit- ter on Wednesday, saying that “to keep America safe we must lead from a posture of strength. If anyone understands that, it’s Robert.” [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Carol Morello and Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.

Adviser gained favor as hostage envoy

EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Trump and new national security adviser Robert O’Brien talk with reporters Wednesday.

O’Brien developed strong ties with Trump, secured broader policymaking role

“Robert is strong on

defense. He’ll be firm on

China. He is a believer

in American alliances.” Kent Lucken, a longtime friend of Robert O’Brien’s

UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws

The Washington Post - 19.09.2019

Get our desktop app

Company

Features

Documentation

Resources