SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. - Funeral services are scheduled Thursday for LaShanda Armstrong and three of her children, who died when the Newburgh woman drove into the Hudson River last week.

Armstrong had filed an order of protection from an abusive boyfriend, reports say.

Often in such cases, according to Sonia Murdock, co-founder and executive director of the Postpartum Resource Center of New York, the problem may be rooted in disorders tied to having given birth within the previous 12-month period. An 11-month-old child was among those who drowned.

"Women who may be going through a domestic-violence situation or other factors may not connect it back to postpartum depression."

Tragedies such as this could be avoided, Murdock says, if more people knew about the statewide toll-free number for the Postpartum Resource Center: 1-855-631-0001.

Wendy Isnardi says she might have wound up harming the child to which she gave birth in 2002 had she not been aware of the resource center. Isnardi has just published a book about her experiences with a form of obsessive compulsive disorder.

"It manifested itself into very, very bad thoughts. Thoughts of harm towards the baby, thoughts of harm to myself - very, very graphic in nature. And me, not realizing that that was a symptom of OCD, I automatically thought that I was losing my mind, I was going crazy and needed to be put away."

As many as 50,000 New York women and families are possibly affected each year, Murdock says, and they should know that it's OK to ask around for help such as that offered by her organization.

"Many may feel ashamed, so overwhelmed, fearful - the stigma that they need to be doing everything themselves - and afraid to speak up."

Isnardi, who now works with Murdock at the resource center, says she wants all parents in New York and nationwide to know there are answers and help for the problems they may face.

"Nobody told me prior to this - and that's why I named the book "Nobody told Me" - until I got in touch with Sonia, did I know that something like this actually existed. I thought moms that had depression were weak or they were really, truly crazy - until it happened to me."

Murdock says the center recently received a $100,000 federal grant that will go toward increasing the training, support, education, and resources her group provides.


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Many backers of the bipartisan infrastructure package hail the number of jobs it's supposed to create - an average of 1.5 million jobs annually for 10 years. Advocates for equal pay say as those jobs roll out, it's important to make sure women and people of color get access to them.

Wendy Chun-Hoon, director of the Women's Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor, said women and especially women of color often are often in the lowest-paid jobs - although they're some of the most important, like child care and elder care.

"We have to address raising both wages in these underpaid jobs, undervalued jobs, because of long-held structural racism and sexism in our country," said Chun-Hoon. "And we have to increase the number of women who are in some of these higher-paying jobs."

Fewer than 4% of specialized jobs in construction and extraction fields are filled by women. Chun-Hoon noted the Women's Bureau has a grants program, called "Women in Apprenticeship and Non-Traditional Occupations," to expand women's pathways to these careers.

Sasha Goodfriend - executive director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women - noted the Commonwealth's equal-pay law means employers cannot request information about a person's past salary before making an offer, and they cannot retaliate against workers for discussing their pay.

She urged workers to have those conversations.

"Before this law, you could be fired for sharing what your salary was," said Goodfriend. "And so, I know it's uncomfortable, because we've been taught that it's not something we're supposed to talk about."

Celia J. Blue, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition, said it's also important to be educated about your industry.

"There's so many tools out there today, that you could easily find out what is your industry, what's the average pay, what's the range?" said Blue. "Arm yourself with [that], going into any job, or even if you're already in the job."

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas has captured headlines over its law banning nearly all abortions, but other states soon may share the spotlight after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Texas law to stand.

The law bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest. It also promises a $10,000 bounty to citizens if they win a court case against anyone who has helped someone gain access to an abortion.

At a virtual press conference Friday, American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project Staff Attorney Julia Kaye said if the Supreme Court overturns the constitutional right to an abortion, she expects roughly half the states to follow Texas' lead.

"Five justices on the Supreme Court have shrugged their shoulders in the face of the catastrophic harm in Texas," said Kaye, "ignoring 50 years of legal precedent forbidding states from stripping away our fundamental right to end a pregnancy."

The high court's 5-to-4 vote said providers could still sue in federal court. Since the Friday decision, legal experts have warned that nearly every constitutional right is now at risk.

And to that end, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday called on lawmakers in that state to pass legislation modeled on the Texas abortion law as a strategy to go after the gun industry.

Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a staff physician with the Planned Parenthood Center for Choice in Houston, noted how difficult the past 100 days have been on the Center's staff.

"Over and over again, we are forced to violate our conscience and our training, and turn away patients who need us," said Kumar. "And we have no good answers to their questions of why this is happening or when it might end."

Amy Hagstrom Miller is the president and CEO of Whole Woman's Health and Whole Woman's Health Alliance and oversees abortion clinics, including the center in McAllen. She called the court's decision unjust, cruel and inhumane.

"Our staff are heartbroken, scared and discouraged," said Miller. "They're angry at having to serve as agents of the state against their will, to enforce a law they don't agree with."

Texas' Senate Bill 8 has been in effect since September 1.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A new report investigates facilities that dissuade women from getting abortions.

Known as crisis-pregnancy centers, the facilities have proliferated across the country.

Kim Clark, senior attorney for reproductive rights, health and justice at the advocacy organization Legal Voice, said crisis pregnancy centers purposely deceive people.

"They draw people in by misleading folks and giving the false impression that they are full-service reproductive health clinics," Clark explained. "And then, really all they're providing is the drug-store pregnancy test and potentially an ultrasound that is useless, if not actually harmful, insofar as it could be misleading."

The Alliance: State Advocates for Women's Rights and Gender Equality partnered with Legal Voice on the study, called "Designed to Deceive." According to the report, there are nearly 3.5 times more crisis-pregnancy centers in Oregon than there are abortion-care clinics.

Sometimes known as pregnancy-resource centers, the organizations running them state their purpose is to provide medical resources to expectant mothers.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard challenges to a Texas law, which would essentially ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Clark pointed out crisis-pregnancy centers are connecting and in contact with pregnant people, and the Texas law allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and people who aid women with getting abortions.

"Which creates an incentive for, basically, the surveillance of pregnant people," Clark contended. "And crisis-pregnancy centers are really in the ideal position to serve that function."

Clark noted there are measures states can take if they are interested in reducing unintended pregnancies.

"Expanding access to reproductive-health care and access to comprehensive medically accurate sexual health education, both would go a long way," Clark asserted.

The report found some crisis-pregnancy centers have been able to secure public funding, although Clark said it is not the case in Northwest states.