hundreds of thousands without power, more than 4,000 flights canceled. winds so treacherous the airport in buffalo, new york, had to shut down. cnn is live with the havoc being wreaked nationwide. and the january 6th committee out with its final report spelling out why donald trump, in their view, was the one solely responsible for the riot and should be discaqualifi from holding office ever again. new transcripts from the committee. why cassidy hutchinson said she was disappointed and disgusted with her first round of testimony under oath. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we start with the national lead and this nightmare weather scenario before christmas crippling conditions stretching coast to coast with snow and ice in cities such as seattle and portland, oregon to the massive bomb cyclone system moving east. nearly 180 million in the u.s. are in areas with temperatures below freezing. 70 million are in areas below zero. this system is so powerful meteorologist
birth, or subject her to multiple extensive open heart surgeries, which she might not survive. jill is a hairdresser and former ms. south carolina, matt a brewer. they were religious republicans in a red state. i grew up in a christian conservative household. i m a very faithful woman. reporter: like many parents, with a severe and devastating diagnosis, they opted to terminate the pregnancy. the best option was to protect our daughter from pain and suffering was to send her to heaven. reporter: but abortion was not an option in south carolina. they found a clinic out of state but it had a two-week wait. those two weeks were probably the most tortuous two weeks of my entire life. it was a logistic nightmare. all while you re grieving the loss of your child. now they ve start today ivy grace project to educate the public.
restrictions. cnn s elizabeth cohen introduces us to a couple that was forced to make some wrenching choices and have become vocal supporters of abortion rights. reporter: last spring jill hardle took a pregnancy test and was thrilled to find out she was expecting. with a little girl, she and her husband matt named her ivy grace. their mama and papa bear instincts kicking in right away. i immediately felt like a dad and father. my whole goal is to protect my family. reporter: and matt would need to protect them at an ultrasound when jill was four months pregnant. our doctor came in the room and immediately you knew that something was wrong, and she said her heart isn t what we want it to look like. reporter: that ultrasound and another a month later found ivy grace had a severe and devastating heart detect. south carolina law gave them two choices, carry ivy grace to term and she would die shortly after
fetal anomalies can t be detected until five months into a pregnancy when it s too late in states like south carolina to have an abortion. it s not fair for the government to tell you what you should or should not do. reporter: cnn reached out to the primary sponsor of the most recent law. state senator larry groom said i regret to heard about the family and their baby with a heart defect. however, i remain committed to protecting the lives of children from those who choose to end their lives. as the holidays approach, so does the day their daughter would have been born. the 25th is christmas, jill s birthday is the 26th and the due date was the 27th. we just don t want another family to have to experience the pain we ve had to experience. reporter: how, they say they don t blame their doctors in south carolina for not performing the termination. they say they know that the laws were changing quickly last summer and their doctors could conceivably have faced heavy fines, they