accompanied by detainees. The decision to transfer detainees to the Farmville Detention Center so that Special Response Teams could travel on charter flights has been described by multiple officials from the Department of Homeland Security as an abuse of the ICE charter flight policy. Although ICE claimed that the detainees had been transferred from facilities that were near capacity, official records reviewed by The Washington Post show that the Arizona and Florida facilities were not actually near capacity when the transfers occurred. The Farmville facility's own capacity before accepting the transferred detainees was already much higher than the capacities of many other detention centers around the country. From September through December 2020, the only other immigration detention center in Virginia, the Caroline Detention Facility, experienced smaller outbreaks of COVID-19. On October 21, in response to the outbreaks at both the Farmville and Caroline facilities, Northam signed a bill granting the Virginia state government permanent authority to conduct both health inspections and wrongful death investigations at detention facilities in the state. Alleged kidnapping plot On October 8, 2020, a federal indictment against six men associated with the Wolverine Watchmen, a Michigan-based militia group, was unsealed. The indictment charges the men with plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and violently overthrow Michigan's government. During a court hearing on October 13, an FBI agent testified that the suspects had also discussed kidnapping Northam in response to his mitigation measures against COVID-19. Political positions The Washington Post described Northam as a moderate state senator who moved to the left on some issues during the 2017 gubernatorial Democratic primary, such as support for a $15 minimum wage and opposition to a state constitutional amendment enshrining right-to-work legislation. Abortion Northam supports abortion rights. As a Virginia state senator, he opposed a bill to mandate vaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortions, and voted against the bill when it was revised to mandate only abdominal ultrasounds. He was endorsed in the 2017 Democratic gubernatorial primary by the abortion rights group NARAL and its Virginia affiliate. Northam has argued for reducing abortion rates through education and expanding access to contraceptives. Planned Parenthood pledged to spend $3 million supporting Northam in his 2017 general election campaign for governor. Northam opposes banning abortions after 20 weeks through a state version of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. For third-trimester abortions, Northam supports Virginia's current law requiring certification by multiple physicians.