I can confirm there is a hitch recall, although the details seem sketchy still.
I bought an Ascent about 10 days ago, and was to have a hitch installed Wednesday. Got a call Tuesday night from the dealership saying that Subaru had contacted them asking for all hitches to be sent back, VIN numbers for any they had installed/sold, and put an indefinite hold on selling any Ascents with hitches installed. As noted on another post, there's now a new product number for the hitch, presumably a fixed one, but no one has it. I checked to confirm with several other dealers in Colorado, and got the same response from them all: recall, few details, no hitches, period.
Sounds like it'll be until at least October before the new hitches are being sent out and ready for install. Frustrating. If you have one installed, I'd call your dealer to find out the deal.
Also, no aftermarket hitches are available yet from my research. Earliest from what I'm hearing is October for those as well.