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Got Talent? 'AGT' Auditions Coming to Philly

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Got talent?

Well you could get your shot to show off your unique skills when NBC’s hit show America’s Got Talent holds auditions in Philadelphia early next year.

Heck, maybe you can conjure up some magic like Eagles long snapper Jon Dorenbos who made the top three in the past season of AGT.

The AGT auditions at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Jan. 14 are open to talented people of any age. You must fill out online paperwork prior to the auditions and you could also get to the front of the auditions line by submitting a video of your act. (More details are available by clicking here.)

You can re-watch Jon Dorenbos and NBC10’s Keith Jones' special Facebook Live right here. [[397843071, C]]

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Photo Credit: NBC
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South Philly Fire Burns Through Homes on Tiny Street

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Firefighters worked hard to put out a fire that hit three row homes on S Alder Street in the Bella Vista section of South Philadelphia early Thursday. Luckily, no one was hurt.

Yard Plane Crash Victims Suffer Facial Injuries, Broken Hip

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A day after a single-engine plane crashed in the backyard of a Camden County home Wednesday afternoon, trapping two people in the wreckage, police identified the pilot and his passenger and revealed the extent of their injuries.

The aircraft landed upside down in the backyard of a home along Linden Avenue in Lindenwold shortly before 1 p.m. Wednesday after somehow missing houses. [[397623721, C]]

Lindenwold Police said the 66-year-old pilot Wayne Gilchrist of Marlton, New Jersey suffered severe facial cuts that "required a large number of stitches." His daughter told NBC10 that he received hundreds of stitches and would need reconstructive surgery. She said he was only able to communicate with his hands as he was treated.

Gilchrist's passenger, 72-year-old David Misek of Cherry Hill suffered a broken hip upon impact that would require surgery, said police.

Both men were listed in stable condition at Cooper University Hospital, said police.

Due to the severity of Gilchrist's injuries, investigators hadn't interviewed him as of Thursday morning but they had spoken to Misek who told them that the plane "experienced an unknown mechanical issue prior to the crash," said police. [[397656531, C]]

Gilchrist's daughter called her father, a cancer survivor, a hero for avoiding homes.

"It looks like it came between four homes kind of on a diagonal, struck some trees and then ended up on the ground," said Lindenwold Police Chief Tom Brennan. [[397664831, C]]

As SkyForce10 hovered overhead a short time later, you could see firefighters from Lindenwold and Cherry Hill working on the aircraft that crashed into some trees and split into two.

"You could tell something wasn't right," said Willie Jones who heard the plane go down. "It was too low. The sound was too low."

After more than 30 minutes, crews pulled both men from the upside down cockpit. No one on the ground was hurt.

"It's kind of crazy," said Cydnei, who lives next door to the yard where the plane crashed. "There are so many houses and trees around here but somehow it managed to miss like everything." [[397700441, C]]

Officials say the plane took off from Flying W Airport in Medford, New Jersey but it's unclear where it was headed. A search of the FAA registry shows the plane is a 1946 Ercoupe 415-C registered to a man from Chesapeake City, Cecil County, Maryland. Investigators said 911 calls alerted them to the crash.

Besides the wreckage, crews also needed to clean up a fuel leak, said investigators. They hoped to clear the wreck Thursday, said police.

It had been about 45 years since the last time a plane went down in Lindenwold.

Federal investigators would determine to specific cause of the crash.



Photo Credit: SkyForce10
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1 Hurt in Philly Blaze

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One person was injured when a house along Washington Avenue at Mansfield Avenue in Philadelphia's West Oak Lane section went up in flames early Thursday. It took firefighters about an hour to control the fire.

Pop Up & Smoke Up at Philly Art Museum Weed Garden

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You may or may not have heard of Hempy — a marijuana mascot who roamed the streets of Philly. Well, the person inside the green costume didn’t sweat bullets and waste energy for the heck of it.

N.A. Poe, a pro-pot activist and the man behind Hempy, created a 90-second montage of his adventure as a promotional piece for Thursday afternoon's "pop-up weed garden."

"I wanted to find a creative way to promote the event, and I’m glad using digital art did the trick." Poe said.

The pop-up began (appropriately) at 4:20 p.m. Thursday outside the Philadelphia Art Museum’s famous "Rocky" steps.

Attendees were encouraged to "BYOW" — Bring Your Own Weed — as long as they brought less than the decriminalized amount (30 grams). The event provided provide light refreshments and snacks donated by local food stores.

NBC10 reached out to the Art Museum for a reaction, but did not receive a statement on the event.

"They are not in on it," Poe assured.

Philadelphia Police stated that officers would be present during the event, but did not say whether they would cite the pot smokers.

The event serves as a two-year anniversary celebration of Philly’s weed decriminalization law, which went into effect on Oct. 20, 2014. The policy turned marijuana use and possession into a civil offense; people who carry 30 grams or less of marijuana are fined $25 and public consumption of the drug gets a $100 fine.

Anyone who joined Poe in the "cannabis happy hour" risked getting the citation for public use of the drug. Poe, however, was not fazed by it. "I don’t know what the f--- is going to happen, but I know whoever shows up will be in for a chill time," he said.

Chris Goldstein, an official with the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said the concept of having a pop-up BYOW garden is a play on Philadelphia’s craze with beer gardens.



Photo Credit: Getty Images
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NBC10 Responds: Leaky Roof Repair

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A Lansdowne man had a problem with a leaky roof so he called Home Depot for repairs. After a few weeks, the leak returned but Home Depot did not, until Harry Hairston and the NBC10 Responds team stepped in.

Photo Credit: NBC10

Locals Weigh in on Final Presidential Debate

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Will the third presidential debate make a difference in the election? NBC10’s Tim Furlong took the pulse of voters.

Philadelphia's 'Free Pre-K Program' Opens

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Philadelphia started enrollment for its first ‘Free Pre-K Program’ Thursday, but could a potential lawsuit stop the new initiative? NBC10’s Aundrea Cline-Thomas found out. Click here for application forms.

Cooler Temperatures Coming

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Philadelphia matched a record high Thursday, but when will temperatures cool down in our region? NBC10 First Alert Weather meteorologist Sheena Parveen has the details.

Owner of Lost Wedding Photos ID'd

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A German choir singer will be reunited with a camera memory card filled with priceless photos, a week after a New Jersey woman contacted NBC 4 New York after finding the chip on a street near World Trade Center. 

A singer for the Berlin Radio Choir was able to identify the photos on the SD card that Tammy Tozer found in the Financial District on Oct. 14

The singer emailed NBC 4 New York after a segment featuring the photos aired on News 4 New York Tuesday and was able to get in touch with Tozer, who lives in southern New Jersey.

The card was full of wedding and family vacation photos, but Tozer wasn't able to find anything on it identifying the owners.

Tozer is planning on overnighting the SD card to the singer's hotel so he can be reunited with the images before the choir finishes its performances at the Lincoln Center and heads back to Germany on Saturday.

New Police Radios in Montco Recalled for Sudden Shutoffs

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A few dozen of Montgomery County’s new $3,600-a-piece police radios had to be returned to the manufacturer, Motorola, after they inexplicably shut off at times, county officials said Thursday.

The 30 or so police radios that didn’t work properly were part of an initial rollout of 300 to four towns in the county, which has now postponed handing out the rest of the more than 3,000 scheduled to be given to all municipal police departments, deputy public safety director John Corcoran said.

Corcoran said the initial plan was to have all the radios in operation by the end of 2016, but that schedule has now been pushed back into 2017. The four towns that were initially given the new radios are Norristown, Cheltenham, Montgomery and Abington.

“Roughly 10 percent were just arbitrarily shutting off and they weren’t giving the field user any reason for it,” he said. “It could have been a very real safety hazard.”

The new radios are part of a $36 million overhaul of the county’s emergency communications network.

Dead spots in emergency radio coverage have also been addressed as part of the overhaul, which began in 2012.

Twenty-nine of 30 new giant antennas have been erected or are currently in construction. The lone antenna yet to be built or approved remains in the middle of a zoning dispute in Upper Merion.

First Assistant County Solicitor Josh Stein said Thursday that the county will bring its plan for the last antenna before Upper Merion’s zoning board in the near future. Township officials have demanded that the county go through the zoning process like any other applicant would in requesting a variance to existing zoning code. The county will have to seek approval of a new, higher tower at a site along Hughes Road where a shorter tower already exists.

Several residents along Hughes Road are against the proposal, according to some local and county officials.

The new delay to completing the emergency communications overhaul, having Motorola reissue the radios, is a setback, according to Corcoran, but he added that no police officer or resident in any of the four towns were put in harm’s way because of the faulty devices -- luckily.

“it’s an issue and we’re working to fix it. But it didn’t cause any safety issues before we found it out,” Corcoran said. “Nobody was endangered before we discovered the problem.”

The original schedule announced in August for handing out the radios to all of the county’s municipalities was by the end of September. All fire and EMS departments were then to have their new radios by October.

The county secured funding of more than $6 million for all of the new radios through the Delaware Valley Regional Finance Agency (DVRFA). The municipalities will have to pay back the county for the cost of the radios, but the county is not charging interest that came with the financing from the DVRFA.

In Norristown, the radios cost $326,000, officials said in August.

In 2009, Philadelphia officials were forced to embark on an overhaul of its emergency dispatch system because of faulty Motorola radios. The city did agree to keep Motorola as its radio provider, but officials said switching to a new provider would have cost millions more and at least five years to complete the transition.

At the time, some officers said they were forced to keep their cell phones nearby in case the unreliable hand-held radios conked out on them. The city agreed to pay Motorola $34 million to upgrade its system.



Photo Credit: Brian X. McCrone

Thank You to Ticketing Trooper

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A New Jersey State trooper received a surprising letter from a driver he'd pulled over to ticket last week.

New Jersey State Police posted on its Facebook page Thursday a praise-filled note from Dave Coskey, general manager of Longport Media, a company that owns and operates radio stations in southern New Jersey.

In the letter, Coskey expressed how impressed he was with Trooper 7515’s dedication to encouraging drivers to slow down and save lives.

“He could have easily handed me the summons and walked away. But he didn’t,” Coskey wrote. “It was pretty obvious that this trooper was really interested in safe driving on the Parkway.”

Coskey was driving his wife’s car on Sunday when he was pulled over. He admitted that “her German car has a bit more pep than [his] Jeep” and he wasn’t paying as much attention to his speed as he usually did. It was the first time he had been pulled over in 15 years, Coskey wrote.

After the trooper handed Coskey his summons, he explained that there had been some recent fatal accidents on the Parkway and the NJSP was working to make the Parkway a safer place to drive. But the trooper’s concern didn’t stop there.

“He finished by asking me as I departed to please use the shoulder as an acceleration lane and that he would remain behind me to help make it safe to re-enter the highway – which he did,” Coskey wrote.

After reflecting on the interaction, Coskey wrote a letter to the NJSP to express his appreciation of how well the trooper had presented himself.

“I never expected to be blown away by an interaction with a trooper after being stopped,” Coskey wrote. “His demeanor and actions are a credit to the State Police.”

The trooper is “adamant about remaining anonymous,” the New Jersey State Police Facebook page reads. "He told us that he wants no recognition for just doing his job. Well, he's doing a phenomenal job!"



Photo Credit: NJSP / Facebook
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Name Controversy in North Wildwood

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The debate is intensifying in North Wildwood over whether or not to change the resort’s name back to ‘Anglesea’. A referendum will ask voters to make the choice on Election Day. NBC10’s Ted Greenberg has the update.

Field Hockey Team Honors 4-Year-Old with Rare Disease

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A 4-year-old boy with a rare life-threatening condition inspired a South Jersey field hockey team to take on a big challenge. NBC10’s Matt Delucia has the details.

At Collapse Trial, Basciano Yells "I'm Broken Hearted!'

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For the second day in a row, the elderly owner being sued for the catastrophic 2013 Market Street building collapse became outraged while testifying at the civil trial.

At first, Richard Basciano, 91, spent much of his time on the stand Thursday replying with the mumbled phrase, “I don’t recall,” when asked about details and events leading up to the disastrous demolition project between 21st and 22nd streets.

But his demeanor shifted drastically when plaintiffs’ attorney Robert Mongeluzzi prodded Basciano about the developer’s testimony from a day earlier. On Wednesday, Basciano at one point yelled: “I’m living in hell here!”

“Do you think the victims’ families are going through hell?” asked Mongeluzzi, who is part of a team of lawyers representing those families of seven people killed and 12 others injured June 5, 2013.

“That is exactly why I’m going through hell! When poor people died, I’m broken hearted about it! I’m broken hearted about it!” Basciano yelled.

He then abruptly declared himself unable to continue testifying.

“I can’t go on, your honor,” he said, crying. “I can’t go on.”

Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina quickly agreed to let Basciano leave the stand.

The previous day, Basciano lost control during questioning from another plaintiffs’ attorney, Steven Wigrizer. Basciano lashed out at the accusation that he witnessed first-hand the collapse of a four-story wall that crushed the Salvation Army store next door.

His demolition contractor, Griffin Campbell, previously testified that he was talking at the construction site with Basciano and Basciano’s wife, Lois, as the collapse occurred.

“That is a damned lie! A damned lie! I’m going through hell here!” he yelled at Wigrizer on Wednesday. “You know this and you’re distorting this!”

Basciano’s long-awaited testimony has been the most explosive yet in a trial that began last month. It is expected to last at least into late November.

His testimony is the first time the developer has spoken publicly about the collapse that flattened the Salvation Army store at the corner of 22nd and Market streets. The victims were crushed inside the store when an unsecured four-story wall of brick and concrete came tumbling down.

Contributing to the drawn-out courtroom drama is the sheer volume of attorneys for the 19 plaintiffs and six defendants.

The defendants are Basciano and his company STB, his project representative Plato Marinakos, Campbell, Campbell’s excavator operator Sean Benschop, and the Salvation Army.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys have claimed that officials with the Salvation Army ignored signs that the demolition was “imminently dangerous” and posed obvious risks to the company’s employees and customers.

Campbell and Benschop were the only two people criminally charged and are each serving lengthy prison terms for involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.

After allowing Basciano off the stand, Sarmina evacuated the courtroom, except for the many lawyers and the jury. She told the audience only that a private discussion about “scheduling” would take place.

Prior to the start of the trial, she declared a universal gag order, so no one inside the courtroom could discuss what took place.

The trial resumes Friday, but it appears likely that Basciano will not return to the stand again until Monday. Because of his frailty, Sarmina previously approved of a request from his defense attorney that the developer only spend three hours at a time on the stand.



Photo Credit: NBC10 Brian X. McCrone

NJ Mom, Daughter Indicted in Shoplifting Scheme

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A mother-daughter duo from New Jersey has been indicted for allegedly running a retail theft ring across six states, the state's attorney general announced Thursday.

Forty-seven-year-old Caroline Britt and her daughter, 23-year-old Breanna Britt, both of Irvington, Essex County, were indicted on conspiracy, shoplifting, identity theft and leading an organized retail theft enterprise charges. Prosecutors say they would steal high-end cosmetics from retail stores, then return them for store credit.

Investigators alleges the women would either shoplift expensive make-up products from Ulta Beauty stores or have other members of their ring shoplift for them. Then the other members or the Britts would allegedly return the items to JCPenney stores for store credit, and eventually turn the credit into cash.

In all, the team is accused of making off with more than $100,000 from JCPenney stores throughout New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts and Maryland for the stolen makeup and other products.

“Shoplifting was the same as stealing cash for this mother and daughter duo, once they devised this alleged scheme,” said Division of Criminal Justice Director Elie Honig. “Schemes like this are one reason why organized retail theft costs retailers across the United States billions of dollars per year.”

The mother-daughter pair could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000 if convicted.



Photo Credit: NJ Office of the Attorney General

Fall Returns for the Weekend

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After a stretch of heat, it will feel more like fall by the weekend. NBC10 First Alert Meteorologist Sheena Parveen has your weekend and Eagles forecast.

Second Grader Suspended Over Paper Knife: Mom

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The mother of an 8-year-old boy says her son was suspended from his Reading school for making a paper knife in art class, but the school says that's not the full story. NBC10's Brandon Hudson reports.

Abortion Becomes Debate Flashpoint With 'Late-Term' Question

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Abortion became a topic in the debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for the first time Wednesday night when moderator Chris Wallace focused on access to what he called "late-term, partial-birth" procedures.

"Well, I think it’s terrible," Trump said. "If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby.

"And, honestly, nobody has business doing what I just said, doing that, as late as one or two or three or four days prior to birth," he said. "Nobody has that."

Abortion is one of the most polarizing social issues in America. A May 2016 Gallup poll showed that 29 percent of respondents believed it should be legal under any circumstances, 50 percent only under certain circumstances, and 19 percent illegal in all circumstances. Only 2 percent of those surveyed had no opinion.

"Late-term abortion" is a non-medical term that varies in definition. Most laws agree that it encompasses abortions near the end of the second trimester, when viability -- the fetus' ability to exist independently of the mother -- comes into question. There are three methods used in "late-term" abortion: dilation and evacuation, where the contents of the uterus are surgically removed after dilating the cervix; early labor induction; and intact dilation and extraction, in which the fetus is taken out as it appeared in the womb and which is widely prohibited.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of reproductive rights, only 1.2 percent of abortions in the United States occur after 21 weeks gestation. Despite their infrequency, Columbia University professor Rachel Adams said that "late-term" abortions have been a hot topic in the political sphere and have served as a means for conservatives to promote an anti-abortion agenda.

"It allows you to make a more viable argument that you're talking about a baby and not a fetus, which I think is a more dividing ethical line," said Adams, who specializes in gender and sexuality studies.

Americans' attitudes toward late-term abortion seem to be changing as a result of microcephaly, the birth defect that can be caused by the Zika virus. A July poll from Harvard University and STAT, the Boston Globe's publication about health and medicine, found that 61 percent did not think a woman should be able get an abortion after 24 weeks, while 23 percent did. But if the respondents were told that there was a serious possibility that the fetus had microcephaly caused by Zika, the numbers flipped: 59 percent favored allowing a woman to get an abortion and 28 percent disapproved.

Adams criticized Trump's incendiary language of "rip(ping) the baby out of the womb" for its violence toward women and the use of the charged word "baby" for an unborn fetus.

Others took exception to Wallace referring to "partial-birth abortion" in his question.

"Partial-birth abortion is a political term, it's not a medical term," said Laura Ciolkowski, the associate director at Columbia’s Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality. "The language that we use to talk about abortion really matters."

Terminology aside, Trump's comments revealed a lack of knowledge of gynecological medical practice, according to experts.

"First of all, there’s no such thing as ninth-month abortions," Ciolkowski said. "We call that Cesarean sections."

Lisa Perriera, a staff physician at Philadelphia Women's Center and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Thomas Jefferson University, called Trump's comments at the debate "completely medically inaccurate."

"Abortion procedures are usually performed until viability, which is nowhere near complete nine-months of pregnancy," she said.

Daniel Grossman, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, has also told Politifact that if there was a risk to a mother's life on her due date "the treatment for that is delivery, and the baby survives.”

In Pennsylvania, "viability" is legally defined as 23 weeks and six days, but almost all of Perriera's patients have abortions within the first trimester. Among those who don't, it's usually due to a problem with access to healthcare. Because many are on government-issued Medicaid, their procedures aren't covered by insurance and they have to save to be able to afford an abortion, which takes time.

In the rare event of an abortion after 23 weeks and six days, it's often a situation when "the baby is incredibly sick," and the mother finds out late in the pregnancy, Perriera said.

In the debate, Trump said that if his nominees were appointed to the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade would be reversed "automatically" and issues of abortion would be legislated by the states.

Overturning Roe v. Wade would just make abortion unsafe, according to Perriera.

"It will have really dramatic health outcomes for women," she said. "You will see more women try to self-induce abortion and possibly have an increase in deaths from unsafe abortion."

Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, said Donald Trump would block access to Planned Parenthood, attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade, and believed women should be punished for having an abortion.

The comment was a reference a March 30 town hall event when Trump told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that women who had abortions should receive "some form of punishment." He walked back those remarks the same day to say that women should not be punished.

"Make no mistake, Donald Trump would ban abortion in this country," Richards told NBC. "And that's why women will be the reason he's not elected this November."

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the moment the candidate mentioned reversing the 1973 Supreme Court case "was literally when Donald Trump support bottomed out with independents... His willingness to say that puts him on the wrong side of the vast majority of Americans."

After pushing hard for moderators to ask candidates about abortion access since the primary debates, NARAL activists were thrilled to see Wallace highlight the issue.

"The voters were able to hear a pretty stark contrast in the two candidates," Hogue said.

Some conservatives were annoyed Trump did not directly answer the question of whether he wanted Roe v. Wade overturned.

Evan McMullin, the independent presidential candidate, tweeted: "Why can't @RealDonaldTrump actually say the words 'I want Roe v Wade overturned?' I'm the only pro-life candidate in the race."

Others denounced Clinton’s position.

"Hillary is an extremist on abortion and admitted last night that she is part of a very small, extreme minority of Americans who believe there should be zero restrictions on abortion throughout all nine (months) of pregnancy for any reason," Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, wrote to NBC, emphasizing that she was commenting in a personal, and not official, capacity as a Christian and mother of four.

"While demanding that crimes against children in war torn countries must stop and touting her pro-toddler agenda, she clearly stated that she thinks everyone is worthy of life except children still in their mothers' womb," Hawkins wrote. "You can't claim you are for all rights of women while simultaneously demanding the right to kill pre-born children, half of which are female."

Matt Batzel, national executive director at American Majority Action, tweeted, "Trump: Ripping the baby out the womb, may be okay with Hillary, but is NOT OKAY WITH ME #debatenight #prolife #neverhillary."

However, few pro-life organizations have directly addressed Trump's comments during the debate.

Clinton has taken a position that abortions should be "safe, legal, and rare." In the debate, she emphasized that abortion policy has to take into account the life and health of the woman, especially during "late-term" procedures.

"You should meet with some of the women that I have met with, women I have known over the course of my life," Clinton said on Wednesday night. "This is one of the worst possible choices that any woman and her family has to make. And I do not believe the government should be making it."

Many abortion-rights supporters were cheered by Clinton's performance.

"Hillary did a wonderful job of bringing it back to the real crisis of access in this country," said Hogue with NARAL Pro-Choice America. "We have now a presidential candidate in Hillary Clinton --partly because she's a woman, partly because she's an excellent leader -- (who) has chosen to listen to real stories of women."



Photo Credit: Mark Ralston/AP
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Get Rid of Unused Pills on Prescription Drug Take Back Day

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