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Heather Locklear‘s daughter is all grown up!

 The 57-year-old Melrose Place star shared a loving video tribute to Instagram on Thursday in honor of her only child Ava Sambora’s 21st birthday.

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 Captioning the post “Happy Birthday Sweet Child of Mine,” Locklear, who is currently seeking long-term treatment in rehab, showcased a series of framed photos of Ava throughout the years.

 “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe my little baby’s birthday is today! Look at the baby, oh my gosh, she’s growing up so quickly,” Locklear said as her cell phone camera panned across the images.

 “I want to say happy birthday to my favorite person in the world. Ava, my princessa, my one and only,” continued Locklear, who lit multiple candles for Ava.

 The actress praised her daughter, who she shares with ex Richie Sambora, as “the kindest, funniest, smartest, most beautiful child in the world and you’ve turned out to be so wonderful — well, you came to me that way. I love you, I want to squeeze you and kiss you and spank you 21 times.”

 To conclude the sweet birthday message, Locklear flipped over two red playing cards: an ace and a queen. “Let’s see, if you went to Vegas, what would you get? Twenty-one, ha!” said Locklear. “Happy birthday, baby.”

 Last month, Locklear celebrated her 57th birthday at the facility she checked into in July to receive long-term treatment for substance abuse and mental health.

 “She’s still there and she’s doing really well,” a source said.

 To celebrate her mother’s birthday, Ava posted a sweet message on Instagram Sept. 25.

 “Happy birthday to my gorgeous mama 💘🎂⚡” Ava captioned a smiling photo of the pair.

 RELATED: Heather Locklear Reflecting, Praying and Meditating as She Seeks Long-Term Treatment in Rehab

 A source previously told PEOPLE that the actress was scheduled to remain at the facility until September and doctors would reevaluate from there.

 RELATED VIDEO: Heather Locklear Treated for Possible Overdose Hours After Arrest for Attacking an Officer

 Locklear was arrested in June for allegedly attacking a police officer and an EMT who had responded to a disturbance call at her residence. Police told PEOPLE that Locklear was allegedly “extremely intoxicated” and “arguing with friends and family” when they arrived.

 Hours after she was released from police custody, Locklear was hospitalized for a possible overdose.

 In mid-September, she penned a heartfelt tribute after losing a friend to addiction.

 “Addiction is ferocious and will try to take you down,” reads the note. “Recovery is the best revenge. Be kind to everyone you meet, your light just might change their path. Rest in peace beautiful Josh. You touched my [heart].” ||||| Heather Locklear Lawsuit on The Way For Attacking EMT

 Heather Locklear to be Sued by EMT Over Drunken Attack

 EXCLUSIVE

 Heather Locklear is a day away from getting sued by a paramedic who claims she was viciously attacked and injured during a drunken episode that landed the actress in a jail.

 TMZ broke the story ... Locklear went ballistic at her L.A. home back in June after cops showed up after getting a call from a family member saying Heather was heavily intoxicated and out of control.

 When authorities arrived Heather was extremely agitated and allegedly punched a cop who was trying to separate her from her family. EMT's then tried putting her on a gurney and Heather allegedly kicked the paramedic who is about to sue her.

 The paramedic will claim in her lawsuit she suffered head and neck injuries, and it was so bad she was confined to a desk job. The lawsuit, which will be filed by attorney Kevin Flahavan, will also allege Heather verbally abused the EMT.

 Heather was released and was later rushed to the ER for an apparent overdose the same day. She went from the hospital into rehab for substance abuse and mental health issues.

 As for the criminal case ... Heather's been charged with interfering with a law enforcement officer and 2 counts of battery. That case is pending. |||||

– Heather Locklear had a tumultuous June, with an arrest and a hospitalization. She already faced charges of battery and obstructing an officer as a result, and now TMZ reports that a paramedic on the scene will file suit this week. The EMT says the 57-year-old actress deliberately kicked her as the actress was being placed on a gurney, causing head and neck injuries that forced the paramedic onto desk duties. On a better note, Locklear posted an Instagram video from rehab last month, showing photos of her with her now 21-year-old daughter. Locklear checked into the facility in July and is undergoing long-term treatment, per People.


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– With day two of its ground offensive in Gaza under way, Israel says it's discovered 13 tunnels used by Hamas to infiltrate the country or store weapons, reports AP. Israeli tanks and bulldozers are focusing on a strip about a mile wide near the border, looking for both tunnels and rocket pads, reports Reuters. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and two others injured today by Hamas fighters who emerged from one of those tunnels, reports the Washington Post. One Hamas militant also was killed in the firefight. Palestinians, meanwhile, say the death toll from Israeli airstrikes has passed 330, with nearly a quarter of those killed under the age of 18. In other developments: NBC reporter returns: NBC has reversed itself and allowed Ayman Mohyeldin to continue reporting from Gaza, reports AP. The network pulled Mohyeldin for unexplained reasons after he reported on the deaths of four Palestinian children, noting among other things that he had just been kicking around a ball with them. The move set off a social media outcry, especially among fellow journalists, notes Mediaite. The network had nothing but praise for Mohyeldin's "extraordinary reporting" in announcing his return. Analysis: In a New York Times analysis, Jodi Rudoren writes that the "landscape is different" than in years' past for this latest ground offensive, in ways that benefit Israel. This time, Israel "has publicly framed a clear agenda targeting tunnels it says militants built to store weapons or stage attacks on its territory. This time, a weakened Hamas cannot turn to Egypt for respite. This time, Western leaders appear more patient." That could change, however, if the ground offensive expands. Click for the full analysis.

Israel says it has expanded its ground offensive in Gaza and militants keep up rocket fire with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the fighting. (Reuters)

 Israel says it has expanded its ground offensive in Gaza and militants keep up rocket fire with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the fighting. (Reuters)

 Hamas militants intensified their attacks on Israeli forces Saturday, killing two soldiers on Israeli soil and attacking others with antitank missiles, machine guns, even an explosives-laden donkey, apparently undaunted by Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip.

 As the conflict stretched into its 12th day, the militants’ resilience seemed to upend the narrative provided by Israel of a Hamas severely weakened by the Israeli ground offensive, airstrikes, artillery barrages and the ongoing destruction of its tunnel network.

 In their most audacious attack Saturday, Hamas fighters dressed in Israeli army uniforms slipped from central Gaza into Israel through a tunnel and attacked an Israeli army patrol, killing two soldiers and injuring two others. The army returned fire, killing one militant and forcing the rest back through the tunnel into the Palestinian territory.

 In all, three Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive began Thursday night.

 Hamas, military analysts said, is much better prepared militarily than in its two previous conflicts with Israel, in 2009 and 2012. Since then, the Islamist group has invested millions in building large quantities of short- and long-range rockets, as well as acquiring other sophisticated weaponry.

 1 of 38 Full Screen Autoplay Close July 18, 2014 July 17, 2014 Thursday Skip Ad × Israel launches ground invasion of Gaza View Photos Backed by artillery shells and airstrikes, assault continues. Caption Backed by artillery shells and airstrikes, assault continues. July 19, 2014 Israeli soldiers patrol near the Israeli-Gaza border. Two Israeli soldiers were killed early Saturday during an attack by Hamas militants, Israel’s military said.The Palestinian death toll from the conflict rose Saturday to more than 330, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

 At the same time, Hamas’s political and economic situation is in its worst state since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007. It no longer has the support of Iran, Syria or Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia because of its refusal to back President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot, is no longer in power. Much of the Arab world, in fact, no longer supports the militants, crippling them financially.

 “They are really stressed. They have to work very hard to achieve meaningful or strategic developments,” said Kobi Michael, former head of the Palestinian desk at Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs.

 “They are much more violent and extremist than in previous campaigns,” he added.

 In a second attempt Saturday to enter Israel through their tunnels, Hamas militants were found carrying handcuffs and tranquilizers in an apparent attempt to kidnap soldiers, Israel’s military said, adding that the militants were killed. In a third incident, a militant emerged from a concealed tunnel entrance in southern Gaza and began firing at soldiers.

 Saturday’s attempted infiltrations into Israel, coming as thousands of Israeli soldiers focus on dismantling the Hamas tunnel network along Gaza’s border, suggested that the number of tunnels could be far greater than believed. If Hamas continues to use them to kill and injure Israeli soldiers or target civilians in Israel, it could prompt Israel to widen its ground offensive and push deeper into Gaza, swelling civilian casualties.

 The Palestinian death toll from the conflict rose Saturday to more than 330, including about 60 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. An additional 2,200 have been injured. The United Nations estimates that about 80 percent of the casualties are civilians, many of them children.

 More than 60,000 Palestinians are seeking refuge in U.N. shelters. By Saturday, large swaths of the coastal enclave, including Gaza City, had been without electricity for 24 hours. Residents worry about their water supply, since they need electrical power to pump water to their rooftop tanks.

 Israeli tanks dig into Gaza's eastern frontier, as casualty numbers rise on both sides amid fresh fighting. (Reuters)

 Citing its concern about reports of severe shortages of medicines, Israel briefly opened its Erez crossing into Gaza to allow medical supplies in.

 Israeli troops and Gaza militants engaged repeatedly in exchanges of small-arms fire.A midday gun battle near the no-man’s land between the fence and populated areas in central Gaza left several Israeli soldiers injured. An overnight attack by a militant near Beit Lahiya wounded three Israeli soldiers. And in southern Gaza, three more soldiers were injured when an explosive device planted by Hamas militants detonated.

 “The resistance is roughly as we were expecting, maybe a little bit lower,” a senior Israeli military official told reporters Saturday, speaking on the condition of anonymity in accord with military protocol. “We expect Hamas to fight.”

 In one incident, militants strapped a donkey with explosives and pushed it in the direction of Israeli soldiers, Israel’s military said, adding that soldiers “engaged the donkey and it exploded at a safe distance” without injuring any troops.

 Much of Hamas’s ammunition and weaponry has been smuggled in from Iran or Sudan, through tunnels that stretched from Egypt into Gaza, according to Israeli intelligence officials. So were raw materials used by Hamas engineers to assemble sophisticated homemade rockets and other weapons. There are also reports that Hamas has acquired drones.

 But since the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood last year, Egypt’s military has destroyed most, if not all, of the tunnels entering Gaza and closed off its border.

 A high-ranking Israeli intelligence officer told reporters in a briefing Saturday that Hamas’s fighters were unable to match Israel’s firepower and that Israel was “using its power on the ground to ruin those tunnels.” He said Hamas’s weapons arsenal had been reduced by about half and that the Israeli army “believes that it has caused a lot of damage” to the group.

 Still, as they tangled with Israeli troops on the ground, Hamas and other militant factions continued to fire a steady barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

 Since Israel’s ground offensive began Thursday night, some 160 rockets have been fired, Israel’s military said, saying the number represented a “limited decline.”

 “Not a big change, but the numbers are smaller than in the past couple of days,” said Capt. Eytan Buchman, an Israeli Army spokesman.

 In southern Israel, though, a Hamas rocket killed a Bedouin man — the second Israeli civilian killed in the conflict — and badly injured an infant girl Saturday, said officials with Magen David Adom, Israel’s first aid agency. Twenty-nine people were slightly injured in the attack.

 Sirens rang over communities in southern Israel all day.

 During the ground offensive, Israeli troops have attacked more than 300 Hamas targets, including 112 command centers and 95 rocket launchers, the military said, and have found 13 tunnels from Gaza into Israel, with 31 openings.

 In Gaza, evacuees watched from the top floor of an elementary school northeast of Khan Younis, one of the enclave’s hardest-hit areas, as round after round of Israeli tank and artillery shells fell a mile or two away.

 Ten men gathered in front of a grocery store were killed before dawn when an Israeli missile struck the pavement. Small BB-size pieces of shrapnel flew from the explosion and flecked the walls with pinpoint holes.

 The men’s funerals were sponsored by Hamas and Fatah, the other leading Palestinian party. Their bodies were draped in the flags of their movements, while religious and martial music blared.

 Sanna Siri — whose sons Mohammad, 17, and Yahiva, 20, were killed — cried out to God and cursed the Israelis minutes after the funeral procession left her home.

 “My sons went to the heavens as angels,” Siri said. She called the Israelis “pigs” and said she hoped they suffer.

 Booth reported from Gaza City. ||||| On Thursday, NBC News reportedly pulled correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin out of the Gaza Strip citing “security concerns.” Meanwhile, NBC News correspondent Richard Engel was allowed to stay in the region. But now, it appears the network has reversed its decision and will be sending the reporter back to Gaza to continue his coverage as soon as possible.

 New York Times media reporter Bill Carter tweeted the news Friday evening:

 NBC News reverses decision on Gaza correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin–will send him back into Gaza as soon as possible — Bill Carter (@wjcarter) July 18, 2014

 Suspicion over the cause of NBC’s initial decision to remove Mohyeldin followed a widely seen report he gave on Wednesday, describing an Israeli missile attack that killed four Gazan children and injured three others. Glenn Greenwald, who first reported NBC’s decision on First Look, criticized the network for removing the correspondent “at exactly the moment where he brought the humanity of this war and the humanity of Gazans to the world.”

 Greenwald called the reversal “GREAT news” on Twitter Friday, crediting the social media outcry for pressuring NBC to reconsider its move.

 GREAT news: NBC reverses its decision on pulling @AymanM – sending him back to Gaza on Sunday https://t.co/4ClcJ7PaGs — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 18, 2014

 No question: an interesting testament to the power of social media. RT @leahmcelrath Do you think the outcry helped? #NBC — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 18, 2014

 UPDATE — 8:35 p.m. ET: NBC’s official statement, as posted by HuffPost’s Michael Calderone:

 Watch the report that may have led to NBC pulling Mohyeldin out of Gaza below, via MSNBC:

 [Photo via screengrab]

 — —

 >> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — NBC said Friday it was sending Middle East correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin back to the Gaza strip this weekend after he left the region for unexplained reasons following his eyewitness report on the killing of four Palestinian boys on a beach this week.

 The network praised Mohyeldin for his "extraordinary reporting" throughout the conflict in Gaza. NBC said that as with any news team in combat zones, deployments are constantly reassessed.

 Mohyeldin's firsthand reports on the deaths of the four boys Wednesday were aired on the "Today" show and MSNBC, and he tweeted that he had played soccer with some of the victims shortly before the attack. But then his social media account went quiet, and when NBC's "Nightly News" reported on the deaths Wednesday, correspondent Richard Engel did the story and Mohyeldin was nowhere to be seen.

 His absence was immediately noticed in the news world. When NBC refused to discuss the situation, there was much online speculation that the network had problems with his reporting. Mohyeldin, who has worked extensively in the Middle East and reported for Al Jazeera English before joining NBC in 2011, has received some criticism of his reporting from pro-Israeli groups.

 In announcing his return to Gaza on Friday, NBC still would not discuss Mohyeldin's temporary absence. But the network made a point to compliment him.

 "Ayman Mohyeldin has done extraordinary reporting throughout the escalation of the conflict in Gaza, filing 25+ reports over the past 17 days, including his invaluable and well-documented contribution to the story on the deaths of the four Palestinian children on Wednesday," the network said in a statement.

 News organizations are usually reluctant to talk about security of its personnel in danger zones, or if some of their employees had been threatened.

 While working at Al Jazeera English, Mohyeldin was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2011.

 Tensions in the region affected another reporter, CNN's Diana Magnay, as she reported live Thursday on Israel's launch of a ground attack in Gaza. Magnay tweeted that she was surrounded by Israelis watching the action who cheered the explosions and threatened to "destroy our car if I say a word wrong."

 Magnay called those who threatened her "scum," leading CNN to apologize Friday and reassign her to Russia. ||||| GAZA/JERUSALEM Two Israeli soldiers were killed in a cross-border attack by Hamas militants on Saturday, the army said, as the Palestinian death toll from the conflict rose above 300 with no diplomatic solution in sight.

 The Israeli military said four other soldiers were wounded in the raid by fighters who reached Israel through a concealed tunnel. One Hamas gunman was killed, while the rest of the group managed to escape back into the Gaza Strip, the military added.

 Israel sent ground forces into Hamas-controlled Gaza on Thursday after 10 days of air and naval barrages failed to stop rocket fire from the Palestinian territory.

 It has vowed to destroy a network of tunnels out of Gaza and hunt down the militants' stockpiles of missiles.

 The land incursion has so far failed to subdue Hamas and its allies, who fired more than 90 rockets into Israel on Saturday, the Israeli army said. One killed a man and wounded two children in a southern Bedouin Arab village in Israel, police said.

 Gaza officials said at least 336 Palestinians, including 70 children, have been killed in the 12-day conflict - about 100 in the last 48 hours alone. On Israel's side, three soldiers and two civilians have died.

 Israel said the Palestinian gunmen who ambushed and killed its troops were disguised as Israeli soldiers. In a separate incident, Israel said it shot and killed another gunman who opened fire at them after emerging from a tunnel shaft.

 Diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire involving, amongst others, Egypt, Qatar, France and the United Nations, have failed to make headway. Hamas rejected an attempt by Cairo last week to end the fighting.

 The sound of explosions rocked Gaza through the day, while sirens repeatedly sounded in towns and cities in southern and central Israel, warning of approaching missiles.

 Eight members of a Palestinian family, including a six-month old baby and two children aged three and 13, died overnight when an Israeli shell hit their house in Beit Hanoun, in northeastern Gaza, officials said.

 "Oh, God. Oh, God," a shocked relative said, repeatedly knocking his head against a wall.

 Hostilities between the two sides escalated following the killing last month of three Jewish students that Israel blames on Hamas. Hamas neither confirmed nor denied involvement. The apparent revenge murder of a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem, for which Israel has charged three Jews, further fueled tensions.

 BULLDOZERS, TUNNELS

 Israeli bulldozers and engineers worked along a mile-wide strip of Gaza's eastern frontier, uncovering 13 tunnels, at least one of them 30 meters (90 feet) deep, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said.

 About 95 rocket launchers were also found and destroyed in the sweep, he added.

 Searches were continuing on what he described as an open-ended mission that had "severely impeded Hamas capabilities".

 Explosives piled onto a donkey blew up in southern Gaza after Israeli troops opened fire, suspecting the animal had been booby-trapped, the Israeli military said.

 Israel says more than 1,500 rockets have been fired out of Gaza during this month's fighting, and between 3,000-4,000 others destroyed in military strikes - together almost half of the militants' original estimated arsenal.

 Hamas says it is continuously replenishing its stock of weapons and is ready for a prolonged conflict.

 The Israeli death toll has been kept low due to the rockets' relative inaccuracy, a network of air raid sirens and shelters and the Iron Dome rocket interceptor's 90 percent success rate.

 The Israeli military urged Palestinians to flee an ever-growing area of Gaza ahead of further military action in the Mediterranean enclave. Locals say about half of the territory's 1.8-million population have been told to move.

 With both the Israeli and Egyptian borders sealed off, Gazans say they have few places to escape to.

 The largest United Nations agency in Gaza, UNRWA, said about 61,500 people had sought refugee in its buildings, mainly schools - more than in any previous conflict there between Israel and Islamist militants.

 "My family and I left the house with nothing but the clothes we were wearing at two in the morning," said Kareem Ramadan, 45, an unemployed father of three, resting in an UNWRA school in northern Gaza.

 "Maybe we'll go back and see the house destroyed, but at least we're alive."

 NO CEASEFIRE

 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to travel to the region this weekend as part of a growing international efforts to end hostilities.

 France's foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who flew to Israel after meetings in Egypt and Jordan, said efforts to secure a ceasefire so far had failed.

 "On the contrary, there's a risk of more civilian casualties that worries us," Fabius said, after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.

 Egypt said on Saturday it had no plans to revise the ceasefire proposal, which Hamas has already rejected.

 "There will be no truce without an end to the war that the Occupation (Israel) began, a lifting of the blockade and a halt to all violations and killings in Gaza and the West Bank," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in Gaza.

 Pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of numerous European cities, including London and Paris, to demand an immediate end to the conflict. Hundreds of protesters for and against the offensive also faced off in two Israeli cities.

 (Writing by Crispian Balmer and Dan Williams; Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Gaza, John Irish in Amman and Tel Aviv, and Allyn Fisher in Jerusalem; Editing by Andrew Heavens) ||||| GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and battled Gaza militants on the second day of an open-ended ground operation Saturday, as the Palestinian death toll climbed past 330 and diplomats scrambled to revive cease-fire efforts.

 An Israeli armored personnel carrier moves near the Israel and Gaza border, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israel pounded Hamas rocket launchers, uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and engaged... (Associated Press)

 EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT -In this Friday, July 18, 2014 photo, Palestinians gather around the body of Ahmed Barnasawi, 22, at the Shifa hospital's morgue as workers prepare him for burial, in Gaza City,... (Associated Press)

 Palestinian mourners gather around the lifeless body of one year-old Rizk Hayek, who was killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during his funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say... (Associated Press)

 Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. The brothers were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell. Relatives say the... (Associated Press)

 Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. The brothers were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell. Relatives say the... (Associated Press)

 Israeli forces' flares light up the night sky in the northern Gaza Strip, early Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza on Friday to destroy rocket launching sites and tunnels,... (Associated Press)

 A Palestinian child runs on debris from a destroyed house, following an overnight Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza strip, Saturday, July 19, 2014. A Gaza health official says the death... (Associated Press)

 Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say the tank shell... (Associated Press)

 Palestinian relatives mourn for Qasim Alwan, 4, and Imad Alwan, 6, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say the tank shell... (Associated Press)

 A man takes a photo with his mobile phone of the lifeless bodies of Qasim Alwan, 4, Imad Alwan, 6, and Rizk Hayek, 1, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City,... (Associated Press)

 Palestinians carry the lifeless bodies of Qasim Alwan, 4, Imad Alwan, 6, who were killed Friday by an Israeli tank shell, during their funeral in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Relatives say the... (Associated Press)

 Israeli armor is seen through dust near the Israel and Gaza border, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israel pounded Hamas rocket launchers, uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and engaged in gunbattles... (Associated Press)

 A Palestinian child walks on debris from a destroyed house, following an overnight Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza strip, Saturday, July 19, 2014. A Gaza health official says the death... (Associated Press)

 Palestinian inspects a ruble of a destroyed house of Qasim Alwan, 4, Imad Alwan, 6, after it was hit by an Israeli tank shell on Friday in Gaza City, Saturday, July 19, 2014. The brothers were killed... (Associated Press)

 Israeli armored personnel carriers move along the Israel and Gaza border, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Israel pounded Hamas rocket launchers, uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and engaged in... (Associated Press)

 The Israeli military said it had severely diminished the arsenal of Hamas, the Islamic militant group ruling Gaza, but the militants have continued to fire rockets.

 In the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials reported intensified Israeli airstrikes, shelling and numerous civilian casualties. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said the new round of strikes raised the death toll from the 12-day offensive to more than 330 Palestinians, many of them civilians and nearly a fourth of them under the age of 18.

 In Israel, a Gaza rocket killed a man near the southern city of Dimona and wounded four people, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, marking the second Israeli civilian casualty from the fighting. An Israeli soldier was killed after the start of the ground operation, likely from friendly fire.

 The Israeli military said during its first 24 hours on the ground in Gaza troops discovered 13 tunnels into Israel — some as deep as 30 meters (yards) — that could be used to carry out attacks. Israel says it launched the offensive to deal with that threat. On Saturday, the military said it thwarted a second infiltration attempt through just such a tunnel, killing one militant and forcing the others to return to Gaza. Two soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants in the firefight, the army said.

 The military also said it has hit 2,350 targets in Gaza, including 1,100 rocket launchers, during the 12 days of fighting. Militants have fired more than 1,600 rockets since July 8.

 "We have struck hard on the two main strategic assets of Hamas: the rockets and these tunnels," Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said.

 Israel says it has encountered little resistance on the ground so far, and has killed about 20 militants in sporadic gunbattles. Three soldiers were wounded in overnight fighting, one seriously, the military said.

 In one case, it said troops encountered a man who appealed for medical assistance before pulling out grenades and trying to hurl them at soldiers. He was shot dead, authorities said. Troops also encountered a donkey with explosives strapped to it.

 Israel launched the ground operation late Thursday after its air campaign on the Hamas-ruled territory failed to halt the unrelenting rocket fire. The rate of Palestinian casualties has risen since the ground offensive began — Al-Kidra said more than 90 Palestinians have since been killed.

 Casualties could quickly mount further if the military moves further into urban areas.

 Some 50,000 Palestinians already are staying in United Nations shelters, according to UNRWA, the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians.

 Early Saturday, Israeli tank fire killed at least five members of the Al Zawaydi family at their home in Beit Lahiya, including two children. In a separate incident, tank shell fire killed three members of the Hamooda family in their home, among them two children.

 In Gaza City, two boys and a 1-year-old infant neighbor were killed Friday evening following the break of the Ramadan fast. On Saturday, at least two of the bodies were carried by somber relatives during a funeral procession in Gaza City.

 A neighbor described the damage to the home as a "world turned upside down."

 "The blood is filling the place everywhere. Small kids, it's a shame, they're kids," Amer al-Jumaasi said.

 An Egyptian truce proposal was rejected by Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and has demanded the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade as part of any cease-fire agreement.

 Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri on Saturday repeated a call for the two sides to adopt its cease-fire initiative, saying it is the only offer on the table, despite efforts from Hamas backers Turkey and Qatar to broker a deal.

 "This initiative still presents the chance for the two sides to cease fire, ending the bloodshed," he said. "It meets the needs of both sides. We will continue to propose it. We hope both sides accept it."

 In a fresh effort to broker a truce, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was to leave Saturday for the Middle East to help mediate the Gaza conflict. A cease-fire is "indispensable" for urgently needed humanitarian efforts to succeed, the undersecretary-general for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday.

 Israeli officials have said the offensive could last up to two weeks. The military reported making steady progress but said dozens of tunnels remain and would not give a time frame for its operation.

 Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, visited troops on the Gaza border early Saturday and said "a strategic national patience is necessary" to complete the mission.

 "Hamas and other terror organizations have been hit hard, painfully and extensively," he added.

 But Gaza militants have remained defiant despite the heavy death toll.

 "The Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip will not surrender to the enemy and will not raise the white flag," Ziad Nakhala, a leader in the Islamic Jihad militant group, told a Palestinian radio station. "We are open to all possibilities as long as the enemy does not respond to the demands of the resistance."

 Hamas has survived Israeli offensives in the past, including a major three-week ground operation in January 2009 and another weeklong air offensive in 2012. It now controls an arsenal of thousands of rockets, including long-range projectiles, and has built a system of underground bunkers.

 But Hamas is weaker than it was during the previous two offensives, with little international or even regional support from its main allies, Turkey and Qatar. Protests against the offensive took place Friday in Turkey, Jordan and the West Bank.

 ___

 Heller reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Yousur Alhlou in Jerusalem, Sarah El Deeb in Cairo and Lefteris Pitarakis in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report. |||||


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The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues. There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes. Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control! ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is lashing out at Sen. Dianne Feinstein for releasing the transcript of an interview with the co-founder of a political opposition firm that commissioned a dossier of allegations about Trump's presidential campaign and Russia.

 Trump calls the California Democrat "Sneaky Dianne Feinstein" on Twitter Wednesday. He says she released the testimony "totally without authorization."

 Adds Trump: "Must have tough Primary!"

 Feinstein on Tuesday released transcript from the Senate Judiciary Committee's August interview with Glenn Simpson, of Fusion GPS. Feinstein had the ability to release the transcripts as the top Democrat on the committee, and her staff helped conduct the interview with Simpson.

 Trump also repeated that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election is a "Witch Hunt" and says "Republicans should finally take control!" |||||

– President Trump lashed out at Sen. Dianne Feinstein for releasing the transcript of an interview with the co-founder of a political opposition firm that commissioned a dossier of allegations about Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. Trump called the California Democrat "Sneaky Dianne Feinstein" on Twitter Wednesday, the AP reports. He said she released the testimony "totally without authorization" and in "an underhanded and possibly illegal way." He then added: "Must have tough Primary!" Feinstein on Tuesday released the transcript from the Senate Judiciary Committee's August interview with Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS. Feinstein had the ability to release the transcripts as the top Democrat on the committee, and her staff helped conduct the interview with Simpson. Trump also noted in a separate tweet that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election is the "single greatest Witch Hunt in American history" and says "Republicans should finally take control!"


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Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Carla Stephaniak was reported missing. Family photos

 RIVERVIEW, Fla. (WFLA) - A Riverview family is desperate to find a loved one who vanished during a birthday trip to Costa Rica.

 Carla Stefaniak, 36, was supposed to fly home from her trip to Costa Rica on her birthday, Nov. 28, but she never made it.

 Stefaniak and her sister-in-law April Antonieta, of Riverview, had flown to Costa Rica to celebrate Stefaniak’s birthday. They visited a lot of places in Costa Rica and had a great time.

 Antonieta had to fly home one day earlier than Stefaniak on Nov. 27.

 Antonieta told WFLA.com that Stefaniak drove her to the airport and dropped her off. Stefaniak then returned their rental car. An Uber driver picked up Stefaniak and took her to the Airbnb she was staying at.

 Antonieta said she and Stefaniak continued to communicate with each other while Antonieta waited for her flight at the airport.

 The Uber driver took Stefaniak to her Airbnb and offered to give her a 1-hour tour of San Jose. She accepted and went on the tour about an hour later.

 Stefaniak continued to communicate with Antonieta during this time.

 Stefaniak returned from the tour and was dropped off at her Airbnb. She communicated with Antonieta and said it was raining really hard and the power had gone out. That was the last time Antonieta heard from her sister-in-law.

 Stefaniak was supposed to get on a plane to fly home to Miami at 1 p.m. the next day, Nov. 28.

 But, that never happened.

 Antonieta said she initially wasn't worried when she did not hear from Stefaniak that morning, she thought her sister-in-law may have slept in.

 But that wasn’t the case.

 "She totally went missing, ghosted on her birthday, which is totally unlike her," said Antonieta adding that Stefaniak’s social media accounts have gone silent, which is very unusual.

 Antonieta said she has contacted the Miami FBI, the US Embassy and Senator Marco Rubio’s office about Stefaniak’s disappearance.

 Antonieta has also created a flyer that is being shared on social media with the hashtag #FindingCarla. A GoFundMe page has been created to help pay for a trip to Costa Rica to search for Stefaniak .

 Antonieta said her husband and a friend flew to Costa Rica this morning to search for Stefaniak.

 She did not go.

 “I’m scared of what I’m going to find,” she said.

 Antonieta said her sister-in-law lived in Tampa for 12 years.

 Antonieta and her husband live with Stefaniak’s father in Riverview.

 Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ||||| Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter

 MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Relatives are searching for Hallandale Beach Resident Carla Stefaniak, who disappeared in Costa Rica.

 CBS 4 was given several cell phone clips from the trip she took with her sister-in-law, April Burton. In all of them, Stefaniak was smiling and cheerful while on vacation for her birthday.

 However, she never boarded her Wednesday afternoon flight to return home to South Florida.

 Burton spoke to CBS 4 from Tampa.

 “Hopefully, we will get a tip that someone saw something; anything,” Burton said.

 Burton left a day ahead of Stefaniak’s scheduled departure for a prior commitment.

 Burton told us her sister-in-law then went shopping and exploring the area in an Uber.

 The last time she heard from Stefaniak was 8 p.m. that night. In a news release, from a public relations agency, Relatives stated her last text messages were about the power going in and out.

 “We just want to know where she is. We just want to find out where she was,” Burton said.

 Stefaniak’s brother is now on the ground in Costa Rica searching for his sister.

 “My husband, her brother is there. He said he’s not coming back until he finds her,” Burton said.

 Relatives have spoken to the owners of an Airbnb, an Uber driver, and security guards. They all told relatives Stefaniak left early Wednesday morning around 5 a.m. and got inside an unknown car.

 “She was just such a happy go lucky person. I’m just afraid she was just too trusting with someone there,” Burton said.

 Since it has been more than 48 hours, Burton is finding it tougher making it through each day.

 “Sometimes I’m more upset than others. Sometimes I can control it. I’m trying to focus on the positives,” Burton said.

 Relatives have started a GoFundMe account to support relatives who are in Costa Rica searching for Stefaniak.

 Family members are also calling on lawmakers to assist in the search efforts by talking to leaders in Costa Rica. |||||

– A Florida woman has gone missing in Costa Rica after visiting for her birthday and getting into an unknown car, WFLA reports. Carla Stefaniak, 36, was scheduled to return Wednesday, the day after her fellow traveler/sister-in-law flew back—but Stefaniak never made the plane. "She totally went missing, ghosted on her birthday, which is totally unlike her," says sister-in-law Antonieta, whose last name is reported variously in the media. "I'm scared of what I'm going to find." Now Antonieta's husband, who is Stefaniak's brother, has flown down with a friend to find her. They've talked to security guards, an Uber driver, and Airbnb owners, who say Stefaniak got into an unknown car Wednesday morning, per CBS Miami. According to relatives, Stefaniak dropped off her sister-in-law at the airport Tuesday, returned their rental car, and took an hourlong tour on San Jose in an Uber. That night she texted that rain was pouring and power was intermittent. Her last text: "It's pretty sketchy here," per QCostaRica. Police investigators confirm she left her room with her luggage at about 5am Wednesday morning. Her social media accounts have gone quiet, with her last Instagram post showing her on vacation Monday. Antonieta says she's told the Miami FBI, the US embassy, and Sen. Marco Rubio's office, and set up a GoFundMe page to pay for the search. "She was just such a happy go lucky person," says Antonieta. "I'm just afraid she was just too trusting with someone there."


News article:

When Jane Austen died in 1817, aged 41, her portable writing desk was inherited by her sister Cassandra. It was later passed down through her eldest brother’s family. In 1999, Joan Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen’s great-great-great-niece, very generously entrusted it to the care of the British Library. Among the items that had been stored for generations in the desk drawer were three pairs of spectacles. According to family tradition, they all belonged to Jane Austen.

 Spectacles believed to have belonged to Jane Austen (now British Library Add MS 86841/2-4): wire-framed pair (on left), ‘tortoiseshell pair A’ (centre), ‘tortoiseshell pair B’ (on right, with string wound around arm).

 The British Library has for the first time had the spectacles tested. Our Conservation department was involved from the start, to ensure that no harm would come to them. The company Birmingham Optical kindly supplied us with a lensmeter to measure their strength, and their specialist staff undertook the tests.

 Louis Cabena (left) and Deep Singh (right) from Birmingham Optical, with lensmeter and spectacles in the British Library Conservation Centre.

 The tests revealed that the three pairs of spectacles are all convex or ‘plus’ lenses, so would have been used by someone longsighted. In other words their owner needed glasses for close-up tasks, such as reading. Interestingly, ‘tortoiseshell pair B’ is much stronger than the others.

 Test results

 Wire-framed pair: R. + 1.75 DS L. +1.75 DS (PD 27.0 53.0 26.0)

 Tortoiseshell pair A: R. + 3.25 DS L. +3.25 DS (PD 26.0 56.0 30.0)

 Tortoiseshell pair B: R. +5.00/-0.25 x 84 L. +4.75/-0.25 x 49 (PD 28.5 55.0 26.5)

 We showed these results to the London-based optometrist Professor Simon Barnard. He believes there are a number of possible reasons for the variation in strength. Jane Austen may always have been longsighted, and initially used the wire-framed pair for reading and distance viewing. She later required a slightly stronger pair (tortoiseshell pair A) for reading, and used the strongest pair (tortoiseshell pair B) for extremely close work, such as fine embroidery, which would have been held closer to the face than a book.

 Austen is known to have had problems with her eyes. She complained in several letters about her ‘weak’ eyes. Could it be that she gradually needed stronger and stronger glasses for reading because of a more serious underlying health problem? Professor Barnard believes this is a possibility. He points out that certain systemic health problems can cause changes in the vision of both longsighted and shortsighted people. Diabetes is one such condition, because it can induce cataracts. A gradually developing cataract would mean that an individual would need a stronger and stronger prescription, over time, in order to undertake close-up tasks. However, diabetes was fatal at that time, so someone might not have lived long enough to require several different prescriptions in succession.

 If Austen did develop cataracts, a more likely cause, according to Professor Barnard, is accidental poisoning from a heavy metal such as arsenic. Arsenic poisoning is now known to cause cataracts. Despite its toxicity, arsenic was commonly found in medicines in 19th-century England, as well as in some water supplies. In this situation, Austen would have switched from using the wire-framed pair to tortoiseshell pair A, then pair B, as her cataracts got progressively worse.

 Jane Austen’s early death has in the past been attributed to Addison’s disease (an endocrine disorder), cancer and tuberculosis. In 2011, the crime writer Lindsay Ashford suggested that Austen died of arsenic poisoning. She came to this conclusion after reading Austen’s description of the unusual facial pigmentation she suffered at the end of her life – something commonly found with arsenic poisoning. Ashford’s novel The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen strays from theories of accidental poisoning into rather more fantastical murder. The variations in the strength of the British Library’s three pairs of spectacles may indeed give further credence to the theory that Austen suffered from arsenic poisoning, albeit accidental.

 We should, however, inject a note of caution at this point: although prescription lenses were in use in Austen’s day, we don’t know whether these glasses were prescribed for her by a physician, or whether she bought them ‘off-the-shelf’. We can’t be completely sure that she wore them at all. However, we are keen to publish these test results in the hope that other eye specialists will share their ideas and opinions with us.

 We know this subject is already of interest to literary scholars. Janine Barchas and Elizabeth Picherit of the University of Texas at Austin have taken a keen interest in the spectacles in the British Library, and have also been investigating Austen’s references to spectacles in her novels. Their theories have now been published in the journal Modern Philology. We look forward to further discussions and debate on this topic. The spectacles themselves have just gone on display in the British Library’s free Treasures Gallery for all to see.

 Dr Sandra Tuppen

 Lead Curator, Modern Archives & Manuscripts 1601-1850

 The British Library

 Email: sandra.tuppen@bl.uk ||||| The British Library has announced several pairs of glasses found in Jane Austen's writing desk may reveal what caused the early death of the one of the world's most-loved authors. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

 On July 18, 1817, novelist Jane Austen died at the age of 41. Much of Austen’s medical biography is murky, and how she died remains an enduring mystery. Historians, in the two centuries since, have dissected what little evidence exists. In her later letters she complained of bilious attacks, facial aches and fever. Austen experts fingered several possible killers, including stomach cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma or an adrenal disorder known as Addison’s disease.

 An article published Thursday on the website of the nationally run British Library offered a theory of a more dramatic sort: What if poison, not cancer or faulty glands, did in the author of “Sense and Sensibility?”

 If so, blame neither foul plot nor gentleman assassin. The arsenic likely came from a tainted water supply or a medicinal mix-up, the library suggested; that is, of course, supposing the element caused Austen’s death. The claim has been subject to a fair bit of skepticism since Thursday, when the library published an article on its website linking her possible cataracts to arsenic.

 The library’s reasoning hinged on spectacles. In 1999, the writer’s great-great-great-niece Joan Austen-Leigh donated a desk that belonged to Austen. The library discovered that the desk held three pairs of glasses, two tortoiseshell and one wire-framed. The British Library recently had the glasses examined, and found that the lenses were convex, suggesting a farsighted wearer.

 Engraving of Jane Austen based on a portrait by her sister Cassandra.

 Austen eventually suffered from very poor eyesight, if the eyeglasses indeed belonged to her. The glasses varied in strengths. One of two tortoiseshell glasses, according to the British Library’s analysis, was quite strong. Perhaps the glasses’ increasing diopters told a narrative.

 “Could it be that she gradually needed stronger and stronger glasses for reading because of a more serious underlying health problem?” wrote Sandra Tuppen, a curator at the library, in the article. “The variations in the strength of the British Library’s three pairs of spectacles may indeed give further credence to the theory that Austen suffered from arsenic poisoning, albeit accidental.”

 This was not the only evidence to suggest arsenic poisoning, the article noted. Austen complained of skin discoloration (“black & white & every wrong colour,” she once wrote), which may also be a symptom of accumulating arsenic in the body. And inadvertent arsenic poisoning in the 1800s was not unheard of. Crime writer Lindsay Ashford, one of the first proponents of the arsenic theory, told the Guardian in 2011 that, “I think it’s highly likely she was given a medicine containing arsenic. When you look at her list of symptoms and compare them to the list of arsenic symptoms, there is an amazing correlation.”

 By the heyday of the Victorian era, arsenic was ubiquitous in Britain, present in medicines and occasionally confused for sugar or plaster of Paris. Green wallpapers and green dresses contained arsenic, according to the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s Distillations magazine, as did “beer, wine, sweets, wrapping paper, painted toys, sheep dip, insecticides, clothing, dead bodies, stuffed animals, hat ornaments, coal and candles.” In 1858, a British candy seller nicknamed “Humbug Billy” killed 25 and poisoned more than 100 others when, meaning to dilute the expensive sugar in his peppermint sweets, he accidentally added arsenic.

 The British Library cited Simon Barnard, an optometrist based in London, who believed that if Austen’s eyesight worsened — indicating cataracts — heavy metal poisoning was a leading candidate. Other cataract causes, such as diabetes, would likely have killed Austen before her eyesight dimmed to the point of needing the strongest tortoiseshell glasses.

 Though Austen’s deteriorating eyesight has been a source of intrigue, past experts hesitated to ascribe it mortal significance. The British Library took a “quantum leap” when its conclusion jumped to arsenic, University of Texas at Austin 18th-century literature expert and Austen scholar Janine Barchas said to the New York Times.

 New Zealand-based ophthalmologist Graham Wilson published a medical analysis of the author’s eye problems, which Wilson traced to a 23-year-old Austen. Given the evidence available to Wilson, the doctor concluded in the 2012 paper that, “There are many references to eyes in her novels, but Jane’s eyes and those of her characters cannot contribute further to the debate around the cause of her death at age 41.”

 The debate around Austen’s death kicked off in 1964, when Zachary Cope, an English surgeon, argued that Addison’s disease killed Austen. He noted her fatigue, hyperpigmentation (discoloration) and weakness during bouts of emotional stress. It made for a convincing argument. Several Austen biographers, including Deirdre Le Faye, author of “Jane Austen: A Family Record,” contend that Addison’s disease was the culprit.

 But Annette Upfal , an Austen scholar then at the University of Queensland in Australia, wrote in 2005 at BMJ’s Medical Humanities that it was not a sudden attack of Addison’s disease but a longer history of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Upfal teased out a history of illness in Austen’s letters, including persistent neuralgia and cycles of fever leading up to her death.

 “Despite traditional accounts, this was not a case of a healthy person being suddenly struck down with a fatal illness,” Upfal wrote. “New medical evidence suggests that Jane was already suffering from an immune deficiency and fatal lymphoma in January 1813, when her second and most popular novel, ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ was published.”

 The British Library’s hypothesis was unlikely to settle any debates. The article noted there were several limitations to the arsenic theory. The premise that Austen required glasses of such unusual strength could be flawed. It was possible that a physician did not prescribe Austen the increasingly strong lenses, and the writer simply purchased them.

 “We can’t be completely sure that she wore them at all,” Tuppen pointed out. “However, we are keen to publish these test results in the hope that other eye specialists will share their ideas and opinions with us.”

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What is a shorter version of the above article?

– The cause of Jane Austen's death at age 41 in 1817 has been an enduring mystery of the literary world. The legendary author's own letters complain of ill health, and experts have used them to suggest a number of possible culprits, from stomach cancer to Hodgkin's lymphoma, the Washington Post reports. Now, a trio of eyeglasses found in Austen's desk could hold a more intriguing answer. The spectacles of increasing strength indicate Austen suffered from progressive eye problems; indeed, the Pride and Prejudice author notes her "weak" eyes in her missives. Austen may have suffered from an underlying health problem that attacked her vision, writes British Library curator Sandra Tuppen, who theorizes slow-growing cataracts might have been caused by accidental arsenic poisoning. The toxic metal was common in 19th-century England, tainting medicine, water, and even wallpaper. Other causes such as diabetes would have killed Austen more quickly, says Tuppen. The debate over Austen's death dates back to 1964, when an English doctor argued the culprit was the adrenal disorder Addison's disease. Then crime writer Lindsay Ashford floated the arsenic theory in a 2011 novel, citing the skin discoloration that Austin notes late in her life. "I think it’s highly likely she was given a medicine containing arsenic," says Ashford. "When you look at her list of symptoms and compare them to the list of arsenic symptoms, there is an amazing correlation." But Austen scholar Janine Barchas, who has her own forthcoming report on the glasses, calls the arsenic theory "reckless," per the New York Times. "We look forward to further discussions and debate on this topic," writes Tuppen. (An unfinished Austen manuscript sold for $1.6 million.)


– "It was the worst cramping I've ever had and probably one of the worst pains I've gone through. And … there's always that slight uncertainty of ... I don't really know what I'm doing." This interview with a 24-year-old Texas woman, part of a University of Texas report on reproductive legislation released Tuesday, underscores the measures women in the Lone Star State are taking as access to abortion facilities is restricted, the Guardian reports. Findings of the Texas Policy Evaluation Project are startling: Between 100,000 and 240,000 Texan women ages 18 to 49 have taken matters into their own hands and tried to induce an abortion at home, with, as the Guardian puts it, "varying degrees of success and differing medical consequences." The report asked an online sample of 779 women if they or their best friends had ever tried to self-induce an abortion, with 1.7% saying they had and 4.1% saying their best friend had or they suspected she had, the Atlantic reports. Extrapolating those figures to the nearly 6 million women of reproductive age in Texas is how researchers came to the final numbers, Mother Jones notes. In terms of methods used to attempt an abortion, the drug misoprostol was the most commonly cited, with others including "herbs or homeopathic remedies," alcohol, illegal drugs, hormonal pills, and "getting hit or punched in the abdomen," per the Atlantic. Texas restrictions on abortions are among the strictest in the US: The 2013 HB2 law has shut more than half the state's 41 abortion clinics. The CEO of a gynecology and abortion care organization tells the Guardian that the result is "tremendously disrespectful. Abortion is legal in this country," she says. "And so every woman deserves to have access to whatever method for terminating her pregnancy safely she might choose in her local community." (The Supreme Court will hear arguments over a provision that could leave just 10 or so abortion clinics open in Texas.)

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 Ever since Texas passed HB2 in 2013, the omnibus abortion law at the heart of a pivotal case the Supreme Court will review early next year, more than half of the state’s 41 abortion clinics have been forced to close. As these closures have mounted, advocates in the state have worried that the decline in abortion access could lead to a rise in the number of women trying to terminate pregnancies by themselves.

 A new study quantifies some of those fears: At least 100,000 Texas women—and as many as 240,000—between the ages of 18 and 49 have attempted to self-induce abortions, according to a report released today by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TxPEP). The study also found that it is possible that the rate of women attempting to self-induce abortions is rising in Texas as a result of the state’s additional restrictions on abortion care. The report points to previous studies that have explored the correlation between a rise in abortion restrictions and the prevalence of self-induced abortions. A 2008 national study found that about 2 percent of women reported that they tried to terminate pregnancies on their own. In 2012, a year after Texas passed several new abortion restrictions, a study of Texas women seeking care at an abortion clinic found that about 7 percent reported attempting to end their pregnancies without medical assistance before seeking clinic care.

 “This is the latest body of evidence demonstrating the negative implications of laws like HB2 that pretend to protect women but in reality place them, and particularly women of color and economically disadvantaged women, at significant risk,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman, one of the study’s co-authors and a professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of California-San Francisco, in a press call Tuesday morning.

 Amy Hagstrom Miller, the president and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, an independent abortion provider in Texas and the lead plaintiff in the HB2 case currently before the Supreme Court, reiterated that Texas has seen a rise in self-induced abortions since abortion restrictions like HB2, and that terminating a pregnancy with DIY methods is not healthy for women. “Nobody should be denied safe and compassionate care based on her zip code,” said Hagstrom Miller. “But that’s exactly what’s been happening.

 These findings come from a survey of nearly 800 women, ages 18 to 49, conducted by TxPEP over two months in 2014 and 2015. The women were asked if they knew or suspected that their best friend had ever self-induced an abortion, and if they’d ever done so themselves. Overall, 1.7 percent of respondents said they had tried to self-induce an abortion, while 4.1 percent of women said they knew or suspected their best friend had done so. Applying these proportions to the nearly 6 million women of reproductive age in Texas, the researchers concluded that an estimated 100,000 to 240,000 Texas women ages 18-49 have attempted to end a pregnancy alone.

 The study identifies two populations where histories of self-induced abortion were most prevalent: Latina women living in a county that borders Mexico—a more rural area of the state that has seen several clinic closures—and women who reported difficulty gaining access to reproductive health care in the past.

 The study also determined that the two broad categories of methods used by women to end their pregnancies were home remedies such as herbs, teas, vitamins, or medications—primarily misoprostol—obtained in Mexico without a prescription by women traveling there.

 Typically, a medication abortion in the United States requires that two drugs—misoprostol and mifepristone—be taken about 24 hours apart. But most doctors say misoprostol alone can be an effective way to induce an abortion if the combined regimen is not available. Most of the women who reported obtaining misoprostol had a complete abortion after using the drug, but used different doses and methods of administration. Many reported intense symptoms throughout the abortion—intense cramping and bleeding, for instance—and some talked about being unsure whether these symptoms were normal or healthy.

 Most women cited one or more of four reasons for choosing to self-induce: They lacked the money to travel and/or pay for the procedure; their local clinic had closed; a close friend or family member had recommended self-induction; or the women feared the stigma associated with going to an abortion clinic.

 But Grossman pointed out that among these specific reasons, “a common layer was that poverty layered on one or more of these obstacles led women to self-induce.” ||||| A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 AN ACT

 relating to the regulation of abortion procedures, providers, and

 facilities; providing penalties.

 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 SECTION 1. (a) The findings indicate that:

 (1) substantial medical evidence recognizes that an

 unborn child is capable of experiencing pain by not later than 20

 weeks after fertilization;

 (2) the state has a compelling state interest in

 protecting the lives of unborn children from the stage at which

 substantial medical evidence indicates that these children are

 capable of feeling pain;

 (3) the compelling state interest in protecting the

 lives of unborn children from the stage at which substantial

 medical evidence indicates that an unborn child is capable of

 feeling pain is intended to be separate from and independent of the

 compelling state interest in protecting the lives of unborn

 children from the stage of viability, and neither state interest is

 intended to replace the other; and

 (4) restricting elective abortions at or later than 20

 weeks post-fertilization, as provided by this Act, does not impose

 an undue burden or a substantial obstacle on a woman's ability to

 have an abortion because:

 (A) the woman has adequate time to decide whether

 to have an abortion in the first 20 weeks after fertilization; and

 (B) this Act does not apply to abortions that are

 necessary to avert the death or substantial and irreversible

 physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant

 woman or abortions that are performed on unborn children with

 severe fetal abnormalities.

 (b) The legislature intends that every application of this

 statute to every individual woman shall be severable from each

 other. In the unexpected event that the application of this statute

 is found to impose an impermissible undue burden on any pregnant

 woman or group of pregnant women, the application of the statute to

 those women shall be severed from the remaining applications of the

 statute that do not impose an undue burden, and those remaining

 applications shall remain in force and unaffected, consistent with

 Section 10 of this Act.

 SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 171, Health and Safety

 Code, is amended by adding Section 171.0031 to read as follows:

 Sec. 171.0031. REQUIREMENTS OF PHYSICIAN; OFFENSE. (a) A

 physician performing or inducing an abortion:

 (1) must, on the date the abortion is performed or

 induced, have active admitting privileges at a hospital that:

 (A) is located not further than 30 miles from the

 location at which the abortion is performed or induced; and

 (B) provides obstetrical or gynecological health

 care services; and

 (2) shall provide the pregnant woman with:

 (A) a telephone number by which the pregnant

 woman may reach the physician, or other health care personnel

 employed by the physician or by the facility at which the abortion

 was performed or induced with access to the woman's relevant

 medical records, 24 hours a day to request assistance for any

 complications that arise from the performance or induction of the

 abortion or ask health-related questions regarding the abortion;

 and

 (B) the name and telephone number of the nearest

 hospital to the home of the pregnant woman at which an emergency

 arising from the abortion would be treated.

 (b) A physician who violates Subsection (a) commits an

 offense. An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor

 punishable by a fine only, not to exceed $4,000.

 SECTION 3. Chapter 171, Health and Safety Code, is amended

 by adding Subchapters C and D to read as follows:

 SUBCHAPTER C. ABORTION PROHIBITED AT OR AFTER 20 WEEKS

 POST-FERTILIZATION

 Sec. 171.041. SHORT TITLE. This subchapter may be cited as

 the Preborn Pain Act.

 Sec. 171.042. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:

 (1) "Post-fertilization age" means the age of the

 unborn child as calculated from the fusion of a human spermatozoon

 with a human ovum.

 (2) "Severe fetal abnormality" has the meaning

 assigned by Section 285.202.

 Sec. 171.043. DETERMINATION OF POST-FERTILIZATION AGE

 REQUIRED. Except as otherwise provided by Section 171.046, a

 physician may not perform or induce or attempt to perform or induce

 an abortion without, prior to the procedure:

 (1) making a determination of the probable

 post-fertilization age of the unborn child; or

 (2) possessing and relying on a determination of the

 probable post-fertilization age of the unborn child made by another

 physician.

 Sec. 171.044. ABORTION OF UNBORN CHILD OF 20 OR MORE WEEKS

 POST-FERTILIZATION AGE PROHIBITED. Except as otherwise provided by

 Section 171.046, a person may not perform or induce or attempt to

 perform or induce an abortion on a woman if it has been determined,

 by the physician performing, inducing, or attempting to perform or

 induce the abortion or by another physician on whose determination

 that physician relies, that the probable post-fertilization age of

 the unborn child is 20 or more weeks.

 Sec. 171.045. METHOD OF ABORTION. (a) This section

 applies only to an abortion authorized under Section 171.046(a)(1)

 or (2) in which:

 (1) the probable post-fertilization age of the unborn

 child is 20 or more weeks; or

 (2) the probable post-fertilization age of the unborn

 child has not been determined but could reasonably be 20 or more

 weeks.

 (b) Except as otherwise provided by Section 171.046(a)(3),

 a physician performing an abortion under Subsection (a) shall

 terminate the pregnancy in the manner that, in the physician's

 reasonable medical judgment, provides the best opportunity for the

 unborn child to survive.

 Sec. 171.046. EXCEPTIONS. (a) The prohibitions and

 requirements under Sections 171.043, 171.044, and 171.045(b) do not

 apply to an abortion performed if there exists a condition that, in

 the physician's reasonable medical judgment, so complicates the

 medical condition of the woman that, to avert the woman's death or a

 serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of

 a major bodily function, other than a psychological condition, it

 necessitates, as applicable:

 (1) the immediate abortion of her pregnancy without

 the delay necessary to determine the probable post-fertilization

 age of the unborn child;

 (2) the abortion of her pregnancy even though the

 post-fertilization age of the unborn child is 20 or more weeks; or

 (3) the use of a method of abortion other than a method

 described by Section 171.045(b).

 (b) A physician may not take an action authorized under

 Subsection (a) if the risk of death or a substantial and

 irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function arises

 from a claim or diagnosis that the woman will engage in conduct that

 may result in her death or in substantial and irreversible physical

 impairment of a major bodily function.

 (c) The prohibitions and requirements under Sections

 171.043, 171.044, and 171.045(b) do not apply to an abortion

 performed on an unborn child who has a severe fetal abnormality.

 Sec. 171.047. PROTECTION OF PRIVACY IN COURT PROCEEDINGS.

 (a) Except as otherwise provided by this section, in a civil or

 criminal proceeding or action involving an act prohibited under

 this subchapter, the identity of the woman on whom an abortion has

 been performed or induced or attempted to be performed or induced is

 not subject to public disclosure if the woman does not give consent

 to disclosure.

 (b) Unless the court makes a ruling under Subsection (c) to

 allow disclosure of the woman's identity, the court shall issue

 orders to the parties, witnesses, and counsel and shall direct the

 sealing of the record and exclusion of individuals from courtrooms

 or hearing rooms to the extent necessary to protect the woman's

 identity from public disclosure.

 (c) A court may order the disclosure of information that is

 confidential under this section if:

 (1) a motion is filed with the court requesting

 release of the information and a hearing on that request;

 (2) notice of the hearing is served on each interested

 party; and

 (3) the court determines after the hearing and an in

 camera review that disclosure is essential to the administration of

 justice and there is no reasonable alternative to disclosure.

 Sec. 171.048. CONSTRUCTION OF SUBCHAPTER. (a) This

 subchapter shall be construed, as a matter of state law, to be

 enforceable up to but no further than the maximum possible extent

 consistent with federal constitutional requirements, even if that

 construction is not readily apparent, as such constructions are

 authorized only to the extent necessary to save the subchapter from

 judicial invalidation. Judicial reformation of statutory language

 is explicitly authorized only to the extent necessary to save the

 statutory provision from invalidity.

 (b) If any court determines that a provision of this

 subchapter is unconstitutionally vague, the court shall interpret

 the provision, as a matter of state law, to avoid the vagueness

 problem and shall enforce the provision to the maximum possible

 extent. If a federal court finds any provision of this subchapter

 or its application to any person, group of persons, or

 circumstances to be unconstitutionally vague and declines to impose

 the saving construction described by this subsection, the Supreme

 Court of Texas shall provide an authoritative construction of the

 objectionable statutory provisions that avoids the constitutional

 problems while enforcing the statute's restrictions to the maximum

 possible extent, and shall agree to answer any question certified

 from a federal appellate court regarding the statute.

 (c) A state executive or administrative official may not

 decline to enforce this subchapter, or adopt a construction of this

 subchapter in a way that narrows its applicability, based on the

 official's own beliefs about what the state or federal constitution

 requires, unless the official is enjoined by a state or federal

 court from enforcing this subchapter.

 (d) This subchapter may not be construed to authorize the

 prosecution of or a cause of action to be brought against a woman on

 whom an abortion is performed or induced or attempted to be

 performed or induced in violation of this subchapter.

 SUBCHAPTER D. ABORTION-INDUCING DRUGS

 Sec. 171.061. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:

 (1) "Abortion" means the act of using, administering,

 prescribing, or otherwise providing an instrument, a drug, a

 medicine, or any other substance, device, or means with the intent

 to terminate a clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman and with

 knowledge that the termination by those means will, with reasonable

 likelihood, cause the death of the woman's unborn child. An act is

 not an abortion if the act is done with the intent to:

 (A) save the life or preserve the health of an

 unborn child;

 (B) remove a dead, unborn child whose death was

 caused by spontaneous abortion;

 (C) remove an ectopic pregnancy; or

 (D) treat a maternal disease or illness for which

 a prescribed drug, medicine, or other substance is indicated.

 (2) "Abortion-inducing drug" means a drug, a medicine,

 or any other substance, including a regimen of two or more drugs,

 medicines, or substances, prescribed, dispensed, or administered

 with the intent of terminating a clinically diagnosable pregnancy

 of a woman and with knowledge that the termination will, with

 reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the woman's unborn child.

 The term includes off-label use of drugs, medicines, or other

 substances known to have abortion-inducing properties that are

 prescribed, dispensed, or administered with the intent of causing

 an abortion, including the Mifeprex regimen. The term does not

 include a drug, medicine, or other substance that may be known to

 cause an abortion but is prescribed, dispensed, or administered for

 other medical reasons.

 (3) "Final printed label" or "FPL" means the

 informational document approved by the United States Food and Drug

 Administration for an abortion-inducing drug that:

 (A) outlines the protocol authorized by that

 agency and agreed to by the drug company applying for authorization

 of the drug by that agency; and

 (B) delineates how a drug is to be used according

 to approval by that agency.

 (4) "Gestational age" means the amount of time that

 has elapsed since the first day of a woman's last menstrual period.

 (5) "Medical abortion" means the administration or use

 of an abortion-inducing drug to induce an abortion.

 (6) "Mifeprex regimen," "RU-486 regimen," or "RU-486"

 means the abortion-inducing drug regimen approved by the United

 States Food and Drug Administration that consists of administering

 mifepristone and misoprostol.

 (7) "Physician" means an individual who is licensed to

 practice medicine in this state, including a medical doctor and a

 doctor of osteopathic medicine.

 (8) "Pregnant" means the female reproductive

 condition of having an unborn child in a woman's uterus.

 (9) "Unborn child" means an offspring of human beings

 from conception until birth.

 Sec. 171.062. ENFORCEMENT BY TEXAS MEDICAL BOARD.

 Notwithstanding Section 171.005, the Texas Medical Board shall

 enforce this subchapter.

 Sec. 171.063. DISTRIBUTION OF ABORTION-INDUCING DRUG.

 (a) A person may not knowingly give, sell, dispense, administer,

 provide, or prescribe an abortion-inducing drug to a pregnant woman

 for the purpose of inducing an abortion in the pregnant woman or

 enabling another person to induce an abortion in the pregnant woman

 unless:

 (1) the person who gives, sells, dispenses,

 administers, provides, or prescribes the abortion-inducing drug is

 a physician; and

 (2) except as otherwise provided by Subsection (b),

 the provision, prescription, or administration of the

 abortion-inducing drug satisfies the protocol tested and

 authorized by the United States Food and Drug Administration as

 outlined in the final printed label of the abortion-inducing drug.

 (b) A person may provide, prescribe, or administer the

 abortion-inducing drug in the dosage amount prescribed by the

 clinical management guidelines defined by the American Congress of

 Obstetricians and Gynecologists Practice Bulletin as those

 guidelines existed on January 1, 2013.

 (c) Before the physician gives, sells, dispenses,

 administers, provides, or prescribes an abortion-inducing drug,

 the physician must examine the pregnant woman and document, in the

 woman's medical record, the gestational age and intrauterine

 location of the pregnancy.

 (d) The physician who gives, sells, dispenses, administers,

 provides, or prescribes an abortion-inducing drug shall provide the

 pregnant woman with:

 (1) a copy of the final printed label of that

 abortion-inducing drug; and

 (2) a telephone number by which the pregnant woman may

 reach the physician, or other health care personnel employed by the

 physician or by the facility at which the abortion was performed

 with access to the woman's relevant medical records, 24 hours a day

 to request assistance for any complications that arise from the

 administration or use of the drug or ask health-related questions

 regarding the administration or use of the drug.

 (e) The physician who gives, sells, dispenses, administers,

 provides, or prescribes the abortion-inducing drug, or the

 physician's agent, must schedule a follow-up visit for the woman to

 occur not more than 14 days after the administration or use of the

 drug. At the follow-up visit, the physician must:

 (1) confirm that the pregnancy is completely

 terminated; and

 (2) assess the degree of bleeding.

 (f) The physician who gives, sells, dispenses, administers,

 provides, or prescribes the abortion-inducing drug, or the

 physician's agent, shall make a reasonable effort to ensure that

 the woman returns for the scheduled follow-up visit under

 Subsection (e). The physician or the physician's agent shall

 document a brief description of any effort made to comply with this

 subsection, including the date, time, and name of the person making

 the effort, in the woman's medical record.

 (g) If a physician gives, sells, dispenses, administers,

 provides, or prescribes an abortion-inducing drug to a pregnant

 woman for the purpose of inducing an abortion as authorized by this

 section and the physician knows that the woman experiences a

 serious adverse event, as defined by the MedWatch Reporting System,

 during or after the administration or use of the drug, the physician

 shall report the event to the United States Food and Drug

 Administration through the MedWatch Reporting System not later than

 the third day after the date the physician learns that the event

 occurred.

 Sec. 171.064. ADMINISTRATIVE PENALTY. (a) The Texas

 Medical Board may take disciplinary action under Chapter 164,

 Occupations Code, or assess an administrative penalty under

 Subchapter A, Chapter 165, Occupations Code, against a person who

 violates Section 171.063.

 (b) A penalty may not be assessed under this section against

 a pregnant woman who receives a medical abortion.

 SECTION 4. Section 245.010(a), Health and Safety Code, is

 amended to read as follows:

 (a) The rules must contain minimum standards to protect the

 health and safety of a patient of an abortion facility and must

 contain provisions requiring compliance with the requirements of

 Subchapter B, Chapter 171. On and after September 1, 2014, the

 minimum standards for an abortion facility must be equivalent to

 the minimum standards adopted under Section 243.010 for ambulatory

 surgical centers.

 SECTION 5. Section 245.011(c), Health and Safety Code, is

 amended to read as follows:

 (c) The report must include:

 (1) whether the abortion facility at which the

 abortion is performed is licensed under this chapter;

 (2) the patient's year of birth, race, marital status,

 and state and county of residence;

 (3) the type of abortion procedure;

 (4) the date the abortion was performed;

 (5) whether the patient survived the abortion, and if

 the patient did not survive, the cause of death;

 (6) the probable post-fertilization age of the unborn

 child [ period of gestation ] based on the best medical judgment of

 the attending physician at the time of the procedure;

 (7) the date, if known, of the patient's last menstrual

 cycle;

 (8) the number of previous live births of the patient;

 and

 (9) the number of previous induced abortions of the

 patient.

 SECTION 6. Section 164.052(a), Occupations Code, is amended

 to read as follows:

 (a) A physician or an applicant for a license to practice

 medicine commits a prohibited practice if that person:

 (1) submits to the board a false or misleading

 statement, document, or certificate in an application for a

 license;

 (2) presents to the board a license, certificate, or

 diploma that was illegally or fraudulently obtained;

 (3) commits fraud or deception in taking or passing an

 examination;

 (4) uses alcohol or drugs in an intemperate manner

 that, in the board's opinion, could endanger a patient's life;

 (5) commits unprofessional or dishonorable conduct

 that is likely to deceive or defraud the public, as provided by

 Section 164.053, or injure the public;

 (6) uses an advertising statement that is false,

 misleading, or deceptive;

 (7) advertises professional superiority or the

 performance of professional service in a superior manner if that

 advertising is not readily subject to verification;

 (8) purchases, sells, barters, or uses, or offers to

 purchase, sell, barter, or use, a medical degree, license,

 certificate, or diploma, or a transcript of a license, certificate,

 or diploma in or incident to an application to the board for a

 license to practice medicine;

 (9) alters, with fraudulent intent, a medical license,

 certificate, or diploma, or a transcript of a medical license,

 certificate, or diploma;

 (10) uses a medical license, certificate, or diploma,

 or a transcript of a medical license, certificate, or diploma that

 has been:

 (A) fraudulently purchased or issued;

 (B) counterfeited; or

 (C) materially altered;

 (11) impersonates or acts as proxy for another person

 in an examination required by this subtitle for a medical license;

 (12) engages in conduct that subverts or attempts to

 subvert an examination process required by this subtitle for a

 medical license;

 (13) impersonates a physician or permits another to

 use the person's license or certificate to practice medicine in

 this state;

 (14) directly or indirectly employs a person whose

 license to practice medicine has been suspended, canceled, or

 revoked;

 (15) associates in the practice of medicine with a

 person:

 (A) whose license to practice medicine has been

 suspended, canceled, or revoked; or

 (B) who has been convicted of the unlawful

 practice of medicine in this state or elsewhere;

 (16) performs or procures a criminal abortion, aids or

 abets in the procuring of a criminal abortion, attempts to perform

 or procure a criminal abortion, or attempts to aid or abet the

 performance or procurement of a criminal abortion;

 (17) directly or indirectly aids or abets the practice

 of medicine by a person, partnership, association, or corporation

 that is not licensed to practice medicine by the board;

 (18) performs an abortion on a woman who is pregnant

 with a viable unborn child during the third trimester of the

 pregnancy unless:

 (A) the abortion is necessary to prevent the

 death of the woman;

 (B) the viable unborn child has a severe,

 irreversible brain impairment; or

 (C) the woman is diagnosed with a significant

 likelihood of suffering imminent severe, irreversible brain damage

 or imminent severe, irreversible paralysis; [ or ]

 (19) performs an abortion on an unemancipated minor

 without the written consent of the child's parent, managing

 conservator, or legal guardian or without a court order, as

 provided by Section 33.003 or 33.004, Family Code, authorizing the

 minor to consent to the abortion, unless the physician concludes

 that on the basis of the physician's good faith clinical judgment, a

 condition exists that complicates the medical condition of the

 pregnant minor and necessitates the immediate abortion of her

 pregnancy to avert her death or to avoid a serious risk of

 substantial impairment of a major bodily function and that there is

 insufficient time to obtain the consent of the child's parent,

 managing conservator, or legal guardian ; or

 (20) performs or induces or attempts to perform or

 induce an abortion in violation of Subchapter C, Chapter 171,

 Health and Safety Code .

 SECTION 7. Section 164.055(b), Occupations Code, is amended

 to read as follows:

 (b) The sanctions provided by Subsection (a) are in addition

 to any other grounds for refusal to admit persons to examination

 under this subtitle or to issue a license or renew a license to

 practice medicine under this subtitle. The criminal penalties

 provided by Section 165.152 do not apply to a violation of Section

 170.002 or Subchapter C, Chapter 171 , Health and Safety Code.

 SECTION 8. Effective September 1, 2014, Section 245.010(c),

 Health and Safety Code, is repealed.

 SECTION 9. This Act may not be construed to repeal, by

 implication or otherwise, Section 164.052(a)(18), Occupations

 Code, Section 170.002, Health and Safety Code, or any other

 provision of Texas law regulating or restricting abortion not

 specifically addressed by this Act. An abortion that complies with

 this Act but violates any other law is unlawful. An abortion that

 complies with another state law but violates this Act is unlawful as

 provided in this Act.

 SECTION 10. (a) If some or all of the provisions of this

 Act are ever temporarily or permanently restrained or enjoined by

 judicial order, all other provisions of Texas law regulating or

 restricting abortion shall be enforced as though the restrained or

 enjoined provisions had not been adopted; provided, however, that

 whenever the temporary or permanent restraining order or injunction

 is stayed or dissolved, or otherwise ceases to have effect, the

 provisions shall have full force and effect.

 (b) Mindful of Leavitt v. Jane L. , 518 U.S. 137 (1996), in

 which in the context of determining the severability of a state

 statute regulating abortion the United States Supreme Court held

 that an explicit statement of legislative intent is controlling, it

 is the intent of the legislature that every provision, section,

 subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, or word in this Act, and

 every application of the provisions in this Act, are severable from

 each other. If any application of any provision in this Act to any

 person, group of persons, or circumstances is found by a court to be

 invalid, the remaining applications of that provision to all other

 persons and circumstances shall be severed and may not be affected.

 All constitutionally valid applications of this Act shall be

 severed from any applications that a court finds to be invalid,

 leaving the valid applications in force, because it is the

 legislature's intent and priority that the valid applications be

 allowed to stand alone. Even if a reviewing court finds a provision

 of this Act to impose an undue burden in a large or substantial

 fraction of relevant cases, the applications that do not present an

 undue burden shall be severed from the remaining provisions and

 shall remain in force, and shall be treated as if the legislature

 had enacted a statute limited to the persons, group of persons, or

 circumstances for which the statute's application does not present

 an undue burden. The legislature further declares that it would

 have passed this Act, and each provision, section, subsection,

 sentence, clause, phrase, or word, and all constitutional

 applications of this Act, irrespective of the fact that any

 provision, section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, or word,

 or applications of this Act, were to be declared unconstitutional

 or to represent an undue burden.

 (c) If Subchapter C, Chapter 171, Health and Safety Code, as

 added by this Act, prohibiting abortions performed on an unborn

 child 20 or more weeks after fertilization is found by any court to

 be invalid or to impose an undue burden as applied to any person,

 group of persons, or circumstances, the prohibition shall apply to

 that person or group of persons or circumstances on the earliest

 date on which the subchapter can be constitutionally applied.

 (d) If any provision of this Act is found by any court to be

 unconstitutionally vague, then the applications of that provision

 that do not present constitutional vagueness problems shall be

 severed and remain in force.

 SECTION 11. (a) The executive commissioner of the Health

 and Human Services Commission shall adopt the standards required by

 Section 245.010, Health and Safety Code, as amended by this Act, not

 later than January 1, 2014.

 (b) A facility licensed under Chapter 245, Health and Safety

 Code, is not required to comply with the standards adopted under

 Section 245.010, Health and Safety Code, as amended by this Act,

 before September 1, 2014.

 SECTION 12. This Act takes effect immediately if it

 receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each

 house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.

 If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate

 effect, this Act takes effect on the 91st day after the last day of ||||| Joseph E. Potter Principal Investigator

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