Future of mifepristone at issue as rightwing groups seek to roll back measures taken by the FDA to expand drug’s availability
Abortion is back at the US supreme court, with arguments on Tuesday in the first major case on the issue since a 6-3 majority ruled in 2022 to overturn Roe v Wade and end the national right to abortion – a decision that unleashed abortion bans throughout the country as well as a political backlash that Democrats hope will serve them in the coming presidential election.
At issue in the case is the future of mifepristone, a drug typically used in US medication abortions. The rightwing groups that brought the case are seeking to roll back measures taken by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand the drug’s availability in recent years.
A decision in their favor would apply nationwide, including to states that protect abortion access, and would likely make the drug more difficult to acquire. The loosening of restrictions on mifepristone have helped mitigate the impact of post-Roe abortion bans; if those restrictions are reimposed, abortion rights groups anticipate it will become significantly more difficult to access abortions in the US.
“More than 60% of abortions in the US are medication abortions, so that would impact a substantial number of people, whether you live in a protective state or a restricted state,” said Nicole Huberfeld, a health law professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health.
And you need a candidate who isn’t poop.
The system totally sucks but we should not be having this discussion during an election year after both presumptive candidates are all but locked in. Any change to the two party system should be made in isolation of any specific candidates or election, so that new and viable contenders can step up and campaign on their own merits instead of just being “not the other guy”.
Well, the past 4 years we’ve let the GOP spread the propaganda that Biden has ruined the economy, despite global costs rising, a global recession that we somehow avoided, corporate greed, state governments increasing regressive sales tax, and Trump era tax breaks for the rich.
Progressives have been angry with Biden for not somehow forcing the Republicans (or Manchin) to do what he wants, despite the fact that we avoided a Republican driven attempt to put the U.S. into default.
Biden has been criticized for his handling of the student debt despite the fact that he has used very clever workarounds to push as much out as possible.
Biden has been attacked for being both open border and his ridiculous restrictions on immigrants when public support for increased border security is at an all time high. No way to win there.
He is judged for being old, despite being extremely knowledgeable and often times clever about how he handles Republican hurdles.
People need to look at his resume. He’s probably the best president we’ve had in 50 years. But the news only cares that he tripped on a sandbag and there’s a line of people at the border (since they reduced the number of entry points but we don’t talk about that or the natural disasters that have sent people here).
I agree, Biden has done a remarkable job. I think his main failing is that he (like a lot of democrats) have let right wing pundits and GOP leaders drive the messaging around his presidency. At some point they need to figure out how to work the press more effectively.
A lot of it is mostly spurred by Trump just…doing whatever the hell he wanted through EOs, because they didn’t notice or care that the GOP controlled both Congress and SCOTUS and thus there was really nobody to challenge the legality of those EOs. So people think “well hell, why can’t Biden just order those loans forgiven regardless” or “why hasn’t Biden just ordered this thing done, Trump did it”.
Very well put