The Abortion Pill, the FDA, and Supreme Court
The Abortion Pill, the FDA, and Supreme Court
Plus: My Friend, the Traitor.
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KIMBERLY WEHLE: The Abortion Pill, the FDA, and Supreme Court.
On Friday, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, in a one-paragraph order, “administratively stayed” an April 7 ruling by a federal district court judge in Amarillo, Texas, suspending the Food and Drug Administration’s twenty-three-year-old approval of mifepristone, a drug used as part of a two-part regimen to end early-stage pregnancies. Alito’s ruling came at the request of the U.S. solicitor general, as well as Danco Laboratories, a New York pharmaceutical company that distributes mifepristone. Alito’s order maintains the status quo—that is, access to the drug across the nation—until 11:59 p.m. tonight.
The stakes are high. Over half of all abortions in 2020 were medically induced, and since last year’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, thirteen states have enacted or reinstated complete abortion bans—even in cases of rape, incest, or life-threatening conditions for the mother. An analysis by the Association of American Medical Colleges found that new doctors applying for residency programs are avoiding those states, as well as several others that have enacted early-gestation abortion bans. Not only do women residing in those states lack abortion access, therefore, but Dobbs is also now exacerbating existing problems with health care, particularly for low-income women and their children.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
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DAVID J. KRAMER: My Friend, the Traitor.
I have been friends with Vladimir Kara-Murza for many years. Along with Bill Browder and Boris Nemtsov, we advocated for the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law and Accountability Act, which imposes sanctions on Russian officials involved in gross human rights abuses. (A successor law, the Global Magnitsky Act, expands the sanctions to human rights abusers and corrupt actors anywhere, and is among the most noble ongoing policies the U.S. government has.) For his advocacy for that act, which became law in 2012, and for his overall criticism of Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and exposure of Russian corruption, Nemtsov was gunned down yards from the Kremlin in February 2015. Kara-Murza is paying his own price for similar support for the Magnitsky law and criticism of Putin’s second invasion of Ukraine, launched last February.
GABRIEL SCHOENFELD: China, Taiwan, and the Risk of the Next World War.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 was an unthinkable act. After more than seven decades of peace on the European continent—the Balkan wars of the 1990s aside—we are now witnessing the unimaginable: a full-spectrum war in Europe, with tens of thousands of deaths and staggeringly widespread destruction. Yet what we failed to imagine in Europe can happen again elsewhere, and at an even greater scale.
The Asian theater is the focus. Thanks to the actions of a reckless 21-year-old airman, now under indictment for violating the Espionage Act and facing a long prison sentence if convicted, Taiwan’s grave vulnerabilities to a Chinese attack have been laid bare. As the Washington Post reports, the secret Pentagon assessments posted on the internet…
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Wednesday! Today we were expecting to hear from the high court regarding the conflicting lower court rulings regarding mifepristone, but the court has punted to Friday.
Most Cleveland thing ever? The USS Cleveland, a littoral combat ship, crashed into a tugboat at its launch. At least the river didn’t catch on fire.
Make sure you listen… to Charlie Sykes on Molly Jong-Fast’s Fast Politics. (And come and meet her at our event next month in NYC!)
The hottest new thing? It’s chess, apparently.
Kennedy 2024? Dave Weigel is on the ground for the launch of RFK Jr.’s longshot presidential candidacy. There are some doozies. Naturally, the Onion had thoughts.
Why are airport sandwiches… So expensive? And why is their pricing a state secret?
Come on, Cavs! One of the best defensive teams in the league, they put the Knicks through hell in Game Two.
Inside the nation’s largest gun show… With Jordan Klepper.
Meanwhile, in the “Free State of Florida…” A prosecutor puts the racism in writing.
…and in Michigan… Fights are breaking out at state GOP meetings.
MTG got herself muted… By a House GOP chairman for her antics and a rule violation.
Lucas Kunce plays MAGIC… And defeats a Time journalist. (You can read my interview with him here.)
Florida expands “Don’t Say Gay” Law… To high schoolers. Remember when former DeSantis spox Christina Pushaw suggested opponents were, themselves, groomers? Fun times.
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