Axios PM

July 05, 2022
Happy Tuesday afternoon. Today's PM β edited by Justin Green β is 574 words, a 2-minute read.
1 big thing: Roe's end could overwhelm foster care

Underfunded and overstressed foster-care systems will likely have more children sent their way with the end of federal abortion protection, Axios' Russell Contreras writes.
- Why it matters: About 424,000 children are in foster care on any given day. They already face shortages of placements, low high school graduation rates, and disproportionately high rates of incarceration and homelessness.
"We're really concerned that this could blow it up," Mariah Craven of the National Foster Youth Institute told Axios.
- Children may end up in foster care because parents can't afford to keep them or aren't able to safely care for them.
- Some women, without access to abortion, may not give the child up for adoption at birth, but decide later that they can't care for them.
Context: A surge in drug addiction by biological parents has prompted foster-care systems to place children in emergency shelters, hotels, out-of-state institutions and youth prisons.
By the numbers: The average placement time for children in state care is longer than a year and a half.
- 5% of children in foster care are there for 5+ years, HHS says.
- 1 in 3 are children of color.
π What we're watching: Abortion foes say the post-Roe world is a chance for religious-based groups to build an infrastructure to facilitate more adoptions or help biological parents through faith.
πΊπΈ 2. Vietnam heroes get their due
Photos: Win McNamee and Saul Loeb via Getty Images
Clockwise from top left: Retired Army Spc. 5 Dennis M. Fujii; Army Maj. John J. Duffy; Army Spc. 5 Dwight W. Birdwell; John Kaneshiro, who represented his late father, Army Staff Sgt. Edward N. Kaneshiro.
President Biden awarded the Medal of Honor today to four veterans of the Vietnam War, saying the phrase "above and beyond the call of duty ... takes on life when you see these men."
From their commendations:
- Spc. 5 Dwight W. Birdwell in 1968 rescued his wounded tank commander and fired back at enemy forces, refusing treatment for the wounds he sustained until he could evacuate other injured soldiers.
- Spc. 5 Dennis M. Fujii in 1971 rejected medical aid from another helicopter when his own medevac helicopter crashed. Instead, he worked to treat other wounded soldiers.
- Maj. John J. Duffy in 1972 moved closer to enemy forces in order to call in airstrikes rather than be evacuated. He avoided evacuation until all other evacuees made it onboard.
- Staff Sgt. Edward N. Kaneshiro, who received the award posthumously, in 1966 repelled an attack from the North Vietnamese with rifle fire and grenades, allowing the rest of his unit to safely pull back. He was killed in action a year later.
3. Catch up quick

- The gun used in a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Illinois was legally purchased in the state, the Chicago Tribune reports. The suspected shooter planned the attack for several weeks before he climbed a fire escape ladder and fired more than 70 rounds. Go deeper.
- π¬π§ Prime Minister Boris Johnson's premiership is on the brink of collapse: Two of his top Cabinet ministers resigned in quick succession today to protest his handling of misconduct allegations against a Conservative Party lawmaker, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.
4. π· Not what you think

These fireworks are exploding over a Lego version of the Capitol yesterday at Legoland in Carlsbad, Calif.
- After every inauguration, the two Lego people in the presidential motorcade are changed for the new first couple.

Here's the Lego Capitol in daylight.
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