As we noted yesterday, fallout from the Republican Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade and 50 years of precedent rolls on with arguments today over access to the abortion drug mifepristone:
The Supreme Court is hearing arguments Tuesday in its first abortion case since conservative justices overturned the constitutional right to an abortion two years ago. At stake is the ease of access to a medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year.
Abortion opponents are asking the justices to ratify a ruling from a conservative federal appeals court that would limit access to mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions.
The high court’s return to the abortion thicket is taking place in a political and regulatory landscape that was reshaped by the abortion decision in 2022 that led many Republican-led states to ban or severely restrict abortion.
That ruling had immediate political consequences and the outcome in the new case, expected by early summer, could affect races for Congress and the White House.
The practical consequences of a ruling for abortion opponents would be dramatic, possibly halting the delivery of mifepristone through the mail and at large pharmacy chains, reducing the period in pregnancy when it can be used from 10 to seven weeks and ending increasingly popular telehealth visits at which the drug can be prescribed.
President Joe Biden’s administration and drug manufacturers warn that such an outcome also could undermine the FDA’s drug approval process more widely by inviting judges to second-guess the agency’s scientific judgments...
Based on the questioning, we should get a sense of where the six trad Catholic Republicans- in- robes may come down on restricting access to mifespristone, but (spoiler alert) we would expect they will go along with the forum- shopped lower court ruling (we'd love to be wrong):
The mifepristone case began five months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Abortion opponents initially won a sweeping ruling nearly a year ago from U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump nominee in Texas, which would have revoked the drug’s approval entirely. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals left intact the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone. But it would reverse changes regulators made in 2016 and 2021 that eased some conditions for administering the drug.
The Supreme Court put the appeals court’s modified ruling on hold, then agreed to hear the case, though Justices Samuel Alito, the author of the decision overturning Roe, and Clarence Thomas would have allowed some restrictions to take effect while the case proceeded.
The extremist forced- birthers holding sway over the Republican/ MAGAt cult and its lifetime- appointment judges around the country aren't stopping here. They'll keep gnawing away at women's reproductive freedoms -- including contraception! -- unless and until the Republican Supreme Court is unpacked and the rights and freedoms that are being taken away by these goons are restored. For that to happen, we need to have a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic- majority Senate. For however long it takes, we need to be as resolute and strategic as the forced- birthers have been for the last half century.
(Image: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
