Just three items after a brief scan of this morning's news that demonstrate the cruelty of the Republican party/cult.
No family planning freedom for you!
Four months after the Supreme Court tossed out a high-profile challenge to the abortion drug mifepristone, and as abortion access is a major flashpoint in the presidential election, three conservative states are following through on a promise to bring the issue back to the forefront with a new lawsuit.
The states – Missouri, Kansas and Idaho – filed an amended suit in a federal court in Texas asking US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk to rollback efforts the Food and Drug Administration has taken over the past eight years to ease access to the drug, such as allowing it to be dispensed through the mail.
The suit may thrust the issue of mifepristone access back on track for Supreme Court review in the next presidential administration, once again threatening the widespread availability of the drug even in states where abortion is legal and at a time when roughly half of states have imposed severe restrictions on in-clinic abortions.
“These dangerous drugs are now flooding states like Missouri and Idaho and sending women in these states to the emergency room,” the states argued in the new lawsuit.
The claim that mifepristone is unsafe has been widely refuted by mainstream medical organizations. Medication abortions account for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the US....
Three Republican attorneys general argued in a federal courtroom in North Dakota on Tuesday that a federal rule allowing some undocumented immigrants to receive subsidized health insurance should be stopped – or at the very least, delayed.
The attorneys general for Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota led the hearing on behalf of 19 states — including Nebraska — challenging the rule, which would allow undocumented immigrants protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to access health care plans under the Affordable Care Act.
The immigration program, also known as DACA, temporarily delays the deportation of people who immigrated to the United States without documentation when they were children.
Health benefits under the Affordable Care Act are limited to U.S. citizens, nationals or immigrants “lawfully present” in the country.
Previously, DACA recipients were not explicitly defined as meeting this definition in administrative regulations implementing the law.
The federal agency this year adopted a rule that clarifies, among other things, that “lawfully present” immigrants does include participants in DACA. The rule also extends the definition to include undocumented immigrants with certain employment authorization documents...
No school for you! Children need to work!
State governments across the US are taking steps to eliminate protections for minors as rates of child labor violations, injuries and chronic school absenteeism rise, according to a report released on Wednesday.
The report by Governing for Impact, the Economic Policy Institute, and Child Labor Coalition proposes actions the Biden-Harris administration can take in response to a recent surge in child labor violations around the country and a trend of some states passing legislation that rolls back state-level child labor protections.
Its authors also warn that moves to weaken child protections will probably escalate under a second Donald Trump presidency.
Injury rates among workers under the age of 18 nearly doubled from 2011 to 2020. All child labor violations almost increased by four times between 2015 and 2022, and hazard occupation violations more than doubled during the same period.
At the same time, legislators in more than 30 states have moved to weaken child labor protections since 2021, often citing claims of labor shortages and backed by industry groups in these pushes. The report noted these rollbacks at the state level have often either conflicted with federal law or sowed confusion among employers over which are applicable to them, leading to more child labor violations.
Project 2025, a conservative guide for a second Trump administration, which aligns closely with Trump’s policies and was authored and promoted by numerous former Trump officials and allies, advocates for rolling back child labor protections, the report cites... (our emphasis)
More of the same mindless punching- down of the kind expressed in "Wilhoit's law" -- "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."
These extremists (let's be more specific -- fascists) want to turn the clock back over 100 years to a dystopian America where the weak and powerless are preyed upon and the powerful and wealthy rule without guardrails. That's all on the line next month, up and down the ballot.
