Tag: medication abortion

It’s all politics. SCOTUS & Mifepristone

It’s all politics. SCOTUS & Mifepristone

The judicial responses to the oral arguments in the US Supreme Court case FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine heard Tuesday were, to put it mildly, “curious” — And you have every reason to be suspicious.

After all, this was the first abortion-related SCOTUS hearing since the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the decision could decimate access to medication abortion nationwide — a thought that you would think would make these extremist judges salivate.

But yet at least 4 of the 6-judge zealot majority that overturned Roe v. Wade were “skeptical” of the plaintiffs’ arguments. Really??

How is that possible? This is the radically right-wing Court that overturned 49 years of precedent when it did away with Roe v. Wade — and has a record of decisions showing they’re beholding to a MAGA agenda and driven by Christian extremism.

Could it be that these 6 Republican-appointed justices are reading the political tea leaves just like you and me?

— 69%+ Americans support abortion rights, the largest percentage ever,
— 64% of Americans – nearly two in three – oppose a law which bans access to a medication abortion.
— Abortion rights have WON in EVERY election where it’s been on the ballot since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
— Even in bright red Alabama, a Democrat running on abortion rights just won on Tuesday. She even made a commercial about her own abortion story. 

The message is clear: abortion remains a winning issue, even in the deep South.

Abortion is likely to be on the ballot in 11 states in November, driving up voter turnout in a presidential election year.

This is NOT a reality that these 6 Supreme Court zealots want to advance. Better to put the mifepristone decision off until after the November 2024 elections.

How? If the Supreme Court decides— in its decision due in June 2024 — to limit the FDA approval of mifepristone in any way, the 2024 election impact would be swift. 

Therefore, the right-wing majority zeroed in on the argument of “standing”. Do the plaintiffs have standing to bring this case? In other words, are they personally impacted so that they can challenge the FDA?

This simply kicks the can down the road until after the election in November.

This radical Court has already handed Democrats several elections because they overturned Roe v Wade. They don’t want to hand the Democrats the 2024 elections by overturning the FDA approval of medication abortion.

The 6-judge zealot Republican majority can decide that the plaintiffs did not have standing which would allow the anti-choice forces to resurrect the case after the elections with new plaintiffs – thereby opening the door again to outlawing medication abortion and undermining the authority of the FDA.

They will wait. After all, this is politics and they’re not going anywhere. 

And they might use the Comstock Act to do it.  Both extremist judges Alito and Thomas already appeared to support the argument that the mailing of medication abortion is violating the Comstock Act — a law passed by Congress in 1873 that makes it illegal to use the mail for transporting any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious book, pamphlet, picture, paper, print, or other publication of an indecent character, or any article or thing designed or intended for the prevention of conception or procuring of abortion.”

Medication Abortions Under Attack

Medication Abortions Under Attack

By Charlotte Baron

Why is Senator Ted Cruz making fact-less attacks on women’s healthcare, again? Cruz is currently under fire from pro-choice advocates after tweeting, “Pregnancy is not a life-threatening illness, and the abortion pill does not cure or prevent any disease.” GOP senators are calling on the Food and Drug Administration to declare Mifeprex, the “abortion pill”, an “imminent hazard to public health”, and to remove it from the market.

Of all developed nations, the United States has the highest mortality rate for pregnant women. According to the CDC, “about 700 women die each year in the United States as a result of pregnancy or delivery complications.” Further, more than 50,000 women have severe and life-threatening pregnancies each year.

In sharp contrast to these numbers, just 24 deaths are attributed to medication abortions in the 20 years since its FDA approval in 2000. That is out of the 3.7 million women in the US have used medication abortion since then. One study done in 2012 found that “women were about 14 times more likely to die during or after giving birth to a live baby than to die from complications of an abortion.” Medication abortions are not harmful and do not put a women’s life at risk.

GOP senators are using the pandemic as an excuse to advance their anti-reproductive healthcare agenda. There is no statistical or scientific evidence to support claims that medication abortions are dangerous. Actually, all data points to exactly the opposite conclusions.