Ever since the historic Roe vs Wade decision of the US Supreme Court in 1973 to recognise a pregnant woman's decision to abort her fetus without governmental interference, various states in the United States that opposed the verdict have been signing legislation to regulate abortions in their jurisdiction. One such law was passed by the state of Mississippi in 2018, on this date, which banned abortions after the 15-week mark from gestation. Called the Gestational Age Act, this law did provide an exception in the scenario of a medical emergency or in the case of a severe fetal abnormality. However, pregnancies caused due to rape or incest were not permitted abortion after the 15-week mark. This is the strictest restriction on abortion in the US of A. The state, which has a population of 29.8 lakh people spread across 82 counties, only has one official abortion clinic.
Facing the inevitable
Often known as the most social of the rhinoceros species, the White Rhino is facing a sad, inevitable extinction. In 2018, the world's last male white rhino passed away in Kenya, leaving just two female members of its species alive. Such species, which are near extinction, are known as extant species. The indiscriminate hunting by humans of this gentle giant for its horn is what brought this fate upon the species. Interestingly, the White Rhinos are actually grey. The name falls due to a mispronounced translation from the Dutch language for the word "wide", which referred to its broad mouth.
What happens in Vegas
The much-romanticised casinos of Las Vegas actually became legal on this date in 1931 after the Governor of Nevada Fred Balzar signed a bill to legalise gambling in the state. The impact that this had on the state's economy was unprecedented. Today, Nevada has a whopping 433 casinos, with the Las Vegas strip accounting for 30 casinos. In 2021, even as the world had spent a year besieged by the COVID-19 pandemic, the casinos of Nevada managed to rake in a revenue of $12 billion.
