The Trump administration said Wednesday it will shut down a Kentucky organ donation group accused of continuing plans for organ retrieval from some patients who unexpectedly showed signs of life.
While those surgeries were canceled, the cases made headlines several years ago, prompting a spike in people around the country revoking their organ donor registrations.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the nonprofit Network for Hope “a bad apple” and accused it of “persistent safety failures” in announcing the government was starting the process to decertify it.
Network for Hope is one of about 55 organ procurement organizations, or OPOs, that coordinate the recovery of organs from deceased donors and help match them to patients on the nation’s transplant list. In a statement, Network for Hope said it “strongly disagrees” with Kennedy’s decision and will appeal.
Among the allegations is that in 2021, Network for Hope’s predecessor organization pressured a local hospital to proceed with plans to withdraw life support and retrieve organs from a man despite signs that he was waking up from a drug overdose. The man survived and his sister joined Kennedy at a press briefing Wednesday, thanking him.
OPOs cannot declare if someone is dead — only a doctor at the hospital treating the person can do that. Only after that declaration can a donor agency assume responsibility for the deceased, looking for potential recipients and scheduling surgeons to come in to retrieve the organs. Most donations come from people declared brain-dead. But sometimes doctors say a patient has a nonsurvivable injury and the family decides to withdraw life support — and in certain circumstances, that also can allow for donation.
In its statement, Network for Hope said it complies with all federal organ policies. It said that over a year ago it implemented a “first-of-its-kind” new safeguard allowing anyone — including health professionals or family members — to call a pause in donation planning if there’s any concern the patient won’t be appropriate.
Kentucky recently passed a law mandating that pause and the federal Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network is working on new rules that also would require all the nation’s OPOs to implement it.
More than 100,000 people are on the U.S. transplant list, the vast majority seeking a kidney, and thousands will die waiting for a new organ. There were more than 49,000 transplants last year, a record despite a small drop in donations from the deceased — the first such dip in a decade.
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FILE - Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
The National Women's Soccer League will kick off its season earlier than ever before next year to work around the Women's World Cup in Brazil.
NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman gave a wide-ranging midseason State of the League address Wednesday during which she discussed next season's schedule, the impact of the men's World Cup and other topics impacting the league.
The league's 15th season will open on Feb. 11, more than a month earlier than this season. The annual Challenge Cup match will be played on Feb. 6. The NWSL will pause from June 24 to July 25 during the Women's World Cup as many of the league's players will be on national teams that qualify for the tournament. The playoffs will start on Nov. 5 and the league championship will be played on Nov. 20.
“We know that major tournaments inspire millions of people to follow the sport, and our schedule allows us to be part of the lead-in and the lead-out of that big moment," Berman said.
The league is intentionally launching the season during Super Bowl weekend and will be “working closely with ESPN to make sure that the NWSL is woven into the weekend stories, and we’re very excited about that,” Berman said. ABC/ESPN is a broadcast partner of the NWSL, and ABC is broadcasting the 2027 Super Bowl.
There has been speculation the NWSL may at some point shift to a season that would align with its international counterparts, although the players' union has objected to such a move and the league will remain on a spring to fall schedule through at least 2030.
The men's domestic league, Major League Soccer, will shift its season to a summer to spring calendar next year. Berman said the MLS move presents both benefits and challenges because many teams share stadiums.
“Right now, being on a spring to fall footprint with MLS, we both have our playoffs at the same time, and what that means is that there are holds across lots of dates with uncertainty,” she said. “With us being on different calendars, that’s no longer going to be the case. We’re going to have visibility into weeks that might otherwise have been reserved but not confirmed, and that will be helpful.”
Berman said the league appears to be benefitting from the so-called World Cup bump, with increased viewership and engagement following the men's tournament this summer. The league's “Sumer of Soccer” event tour and marketing campaign aimed to capitalize on the men's tournament to boost the NWSL's profile.
Berman touted the campaign for growth on social media platforms Instagram and YouTube. The league had nearly 40 million impressions on social media with the Summer of Soccer tour hashtag, #NWSLOnTour."
Average attendance to date is 11,174 per game, the second-highest behind 2024, which had an average of 11,249.
“We’re close to to beating that, and we hope we’ll have a strong second half of the season, where we can celebrate this being our highest-attended year on an average basis,” Berman said.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s failed plan to sell stakes in future World Cups to private investors has brought increasing scrutiny of his leadership.
CONCACAF and its 41 member associations, including the United States, previously rejected Infantino's proposal. Whether U.S. Soccer would take a position on Infantino's future won't be discussed until a September board meeting, CEO JT Batson told reporters on Tuesday. Berman sits on the board.
"I’ll start by saying we wholeheartedly support the position that U.S. Soccer and CONCACAF took as it relates to not being supportive of that proposal, and are pleased that it was withdrawn," Berman said. "As it relates to future state conversations about the future of FIFA and leadership, I’m eager to have discussions with our fellow board members to listen and learn and better understand the optionality that might exist and the process."
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FILE - Jessica Berman, commissioner of the National Women's Soccer League, announces the securing of a bid by Denver to be the 16th team in the league during a news conference, Jan. 30, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
