The hidden risk of state-by-state abortion laws

… plus curiosities from SpaceX, Brat summer, and more

Welcome back to another edition of The Detour! My name is Kelly, and I’m the newsletter’s founding writer. We created The Detour to cut through the noise of the internet and deliver journalism that sparks curiosity from all corners of the globe. We're so grateful for the time you spend with us each week.

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Thank you for reading,

Kelly

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Without further ado, here’s what’s on deck:

📖 One state’s competing abortion initiatives — and what it means for the rest of the U.S.

🪙 Brat summer is over, but the girlification of the internet has only just begun

🧠 A technique for dealing with intrusive thoughts

67.1 Million — The number of viewers who tuned in to the presidential debate between U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former U.S. President Donald Trump Tuesday on ABC, according to Nielsen data. Critics and politicos generally agreed that the debate wasn’t close, and that Harris was able to successfully bait Trump into doubling down on incorrect or downright incoherent responses while coming across as prepared and on the offensive.

A closer look at Trump and Harris’s stance on abortion — During Tuesday’s debate, Harris vowed to restore Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that guaranteed abortion rights through the constitutional right to privacy. In 2022, the Supreme Court overruled Roe, ending the constitutional right to abortion. She and Biden both continue to support the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would allow abortion up to “fetal viability” and later in pregnancy if it would save the mother’s life.

Trump’s abortion stance is a great entry point for this week’s cover story. During the debate he said: “I’m not in favor of an abortion ban, but it doesn’t matter, because this issue has now been taken over by the states.”

Trump’s stance highlights a major shift in the abortion access debate: This week, I spoke with healthcare professionals, lawyers, and mothers who worry that relegating abortion policy to states won’t bring the democratic solution many GOP lawmakers promise.

Voters in ten states will head to the polls in November to weigh in on abortion rights, and yet many of these states have clamped down on citizen-led initiatives to put abortion rights on the state ballot. Scroll down to the cover story to dive deeper.

$100 million USD — The amount of money given by the U.S. government in emergency food assistance on Wednesday to support food-insecure populations in South Sudan. The African country has long been one of the most food insecure nations in the world. But now, more than ever, South Sudan is experiencing compounding crises that include a civil war that has inched into its tenth month and floods induced by human-caused climate change, generating a spell of humanitarian needs. On Wednesday, the World Food Programme (WFP) said more than 25 million people across Sudan, South Sudan, and Chad are “trapped in a spiral” of food insecurity.

There’s so much more to The Detour this week. Subscribe below for a free seven-day trial to keep reading.