Republican Supreme Court Hears Arguments Today Over Mifepristone Access

 

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)

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Sunday that he expects Speaker Mike Johnson to bring a Ukraine aid bill to the floor after Easter, despite the risk that it could drive support for a vote to oust him from leadership.

“His commitment is to put it on the floor after Easter,” McCaul said Sunday during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Johnson, McCaul acknowledged, is “in a very difficult spot.” There’s a chance the Louisiana Republican could be ousted from his speakership thanks to a motion Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed last week to remove him from his post after he leaned on Democratic support to pass a $1.2 trillion government funding deal.

So far, Republicans aren’t biting — at least not publicly. Conservatives weren’t happy with Johnson’s decision to shuttle the funding the bill along with the help of Democrats, but most have indicated they won’t go as far as Greene for now. And no other Republicans have publicly committed to voting to oust Johnson yet.

Ukraine aid could complicate things. Some Republican hardliners have come out against sending more assistance to the country as it struggles to beat back Russian forces after more than two years of fighting.

But McCaul voiced optimism about the prospect of a bill on Sunday.

“I believe [Johnson is] committed because he understands national security- he leans on, you know, myself, the Chairman of Armed Services, House Intelligence for advice on this. And he knows how important this is,” McCaul said.

McCaul didn’t get more specific on the timeline, but said he hopes to get Ukraine funding done “as soon as possible.”...

Well, we won't be counting any chickens yet, but whether through a discharge petition being driven by House Democrats, or through MAGA Mike Johnson caving and allowing a floor vote on the Senate-passed bill, this funding is critical to Ukraine and to our national security, is long overdue, and we believe it will pass.  Johnson will undoubtedly face a motion to end his short term as Speaker led by braying ass seditionist Marjorie Traitor Greene and her Putin caucus;  a bargain to receive enough Democratic votes to keep him as Speaker in exchange for this aid, and other Democratic priorities, is likely in the works.

The bad:

The Supreme Court will again wade into the fractious issue of abortion this week when it hears arguments over a medication used in the most common way to end a pregnancy, a case with profound implications for millions of women no matter where they live in America and, perhaps, for the race for the White House.

Two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and cleared the way for bans or severe restrictions on abortion in many Republican-led states, abortion opponents on Tuesday will ask the high court to ratify a ruling from a conservative federal appeals court that would limit access to the medication mifepristone, which was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States last year.

That decision to reverse Roe had immediate political consequences, with Democrats making the case that the court had taken away a right that women held for half a century and winning elections as a result. Even conservative-leaning states like Kansas and Ohio voted against abortion restrictions. If the court were to uphold restrictions on medication abortions it could roil the election landscape in races for Congress and the presidency.

By rolling back Food and Drug Administration changes to the use of mifepristone, the ruling would cut off access to the drug through the mail and impose other restrictions, even in states where abortion remains legal. The restrictions would shorten the time when mifepristone can be used in pregnancy, to seven weeks from 10 currently...

The Pandora's box opened by the Republican Supreme Court when it overturned Roe v. Wade and 50 years of precedent is continuing to produce toxic results for American women.  Once again, we can thank then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for enabling the Malignant Loser to load the Court with trad Catholic Republicans when we should have a 5-4 liberal majority right now.  Elections matter.

The ugly: 

Former Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel faced brutal criticism during her first NBC appearance Sunday since the network hired her as a political analyst, including tough questioning about her failure to push back against former president Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud and visceral aggravation from journalists who said her hiring raised “credibility issues” for NBC.

In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” McDaniel, who stepped down from the RNC this month, was not asked about the firestorm from critics who said her newly announced role as a paid contributor was unethical due to her work to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Kristen Welker, the show’s host, said McDaniel’s interview was scheduled weeks before her hiring was announced. She added, “This will be a news interview, and I was not involved in her hiring.”

McDaniel, who as RNC chair had repeatedly said the election was “rigged,” told Welker during the interview that she disagreed with Trump’s claims of election fraud and his calls to free the inmates jailed for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “The reality is Joe Biden won,” she said. “... He’s the legitimate president.”

But minutes later, a panel of journalists on the show questioned the credibility of her answers and laid into NBC executives for their decision to hire someone who had long attacked the network.

“Our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation because I don’t know what to believe,” Chuck Todd, NBC journalist and former “Meet the Press” host, told Welker. “... I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract.”

The airing of internal dissent reflected deep discomfort at NBC and many media organizations with how to treat Republicans who indulged Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and undermine Americans’ trust in the media.  [snip]

Before Sunday’s show, NBC News had sought to defend McDaniel’s hiring as a way to examine “the diverse perspectives of American voters,” according to an internal memo by Carrie Budoff Brown, who oversees NBC News’s political coverage, that was shared with The Washington Post.

Another ugly media debacle driven by the insatiable desire to sanitize and monetize the MAGA cult, er, we mean "examine 'the diverse perspectives of American voters.'"  Credit to Todd for calling it out (here's a link to his salvo).  Carrie "Bugger off" Brown needs to get sacked for this execrable, indefensible decision.