I will write more about the Supreme Court ruling barring the Texas mifepristone decision from going into effect while the appeals process continues, but in light of the ruling I want to talk a bit about the Republican party and the solidification of minority rule in this country.
When the Dobbs decision came down, it not only gave the states power to ban or protect abortion, it guaranteed that the battle was realy going to be fought in the courts, and would likely assure that more cases about abortion would be dicided by SCOTUS, which of course had 6-3 radical conservative, anti-abortion, majority. (I refuse to call any court that continues to allow children to be killed in their schools while opposing abortion pro-life.) The thing is, most Americans, including most Republicans, say in polls that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Yet the Republican party continues to make banning abortion central to their platform.
When a party seeks power while ignoring the majority opinion, they must of course make the majority meaningless and powerless. After 30 years of orchestrating the takeover of SCOTUS and the increasing number of right-wing judges to district and appeals courts, the infrastructure has been in place to fight voting rights; think of everything coming after the 2020 election, with state laws being passed that would allow politicians to overturn election results and the terrorizing of election officials and poll workers. Donald Trump may think he was leading, but his was only the last stage pulling democracy over the cliff.
The war on women IS the war on democracy.
SCOTUS Ruling
The Supreme Court on Friday night granted a request from the Biden administration and a drug manufacturer to put on hold a ruling by a federal judge in Texas that suspended the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, part of a two-drug protocol used to end pregnancies in their early stages. The battle over medication abortions, which account for over half of all abortions performed in the United States each year, now returns to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which is scheduled to hear oral argument in the case next month. The order means that the drug will remain widely available while litigation continues.
www.scotusblog.com/...
I doubt readers of this series need this reminder, but in case you do, the original decision by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk rescinded FDA approval of mifepristone, saying that the FDA has not considered real health hazards to women. The case had been brought by a group of anti-abortion medical groups and practitioners. The SCOTUSblog article quoted above explains how SCOTUS got involved at this point.
Kacsmaryk suspended the agency’s approval of the drug, as well as the FDA’s later changes to the conditions on the use of the drug, which included allowing the drug to be used through the 10th week of pregnancy, reducing the number of in-person clinic visits, and allowing health-care providers who are not physicians to prescribe the drug. He put his order on hold for seven days, until April 14, to give the government time to appeal.
When the Biden administration asked the 5th Circuit to put Kacsmaryk’s order on hold, that court blocked only the part of the judge’s order suspending the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone. But it refused to disturb the rest of Kacsmaryk’s order, which invalidated the FDA’s subsequent changes to the conditions on the drug’s use to expand access to it.
The Biden administration went to the Supreme Court immediately, asking the justices to keep Kacsmaryk’s order entirely on hold to preserve the status quo while the government’s appeal continues in the 5th Circuit.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they would have allowed part of Kacsmaryk’s decision to stand, as in the 5th Circuit hold.
Other News
In Iran:
Iran is trying to reimpose strict dress codes months after a wave of unrest in which women and girls removed their headscarves in protest following the death of a young woman who had been detained by morality police.
The government is trying to reassert control after months of the sometimes-violent nationwide demonstrations posed the biggest challenge to the clerical establishment since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Over the weekend, thousands of text messages were sent reminding business owners and drivers of the renewed crackdown on women not wearing hijabs, the head coverings worn by some Muslim women, according to the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB News.
www.nbcnews.com/…
In Idaho:
Idaho has become the first state to pass a law explicitly restricting some out-of-state travel for abortions.
The new legislation makes helping a pregnant minor get an abortion, whether through medication or a procedure, in another state punishable by two to five years in prison. Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, signed the bill on Wednesday night, and it goes into effect after 30 days.
Abortion has been banned at all stages of pregnancy in Idaho since August — a result of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Terminating a pregnancy is illegal in the state unless it saves the life of the mother or in cases of rape and incest in which the survivor has reported the incident to law enforcement.
www.nbcnews.com/…
In Boston:
The theme for this year's Boston Early Music Festival is "A Celebration of Women" - it will be held June 4-11, 2023.
BBC Radio 4 called the BEMF "Arguably the most important and influential Early Music event in the world." They're honoring the work of women musicians, poets, painters, librettists, actors, scholars, publishers, dedicatees, patrons, administrators, directors, and theatre technicians.
bemf.org/…
Final Fun: A World Without Women
This is a wonderful send-up of car advertising aimed at men - put out by Ford (in Canada) for International Women's Day - but it's just getting attention now in the U.S. because wasn't released here by Ford's head honchos in Dearborn MI - let's hear it for the Canadians!
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As always, thanks to the WoW crew, this week including mettle fatigue, elenacarlena, officebss, and SandraLLAP.