What Is Happening?

  • The Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case disputing access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
  • The case challenges the FDA’s actions to expand the accessibility of mifepristone, including making the pill available via online order or mail delivery.
  • The decision in this case is expected to have significant implications for abortion access ahead of the 2024 election.

What is the Conservative media saying:

  • The Biden-Harris administration believes that reproductive health care decisions belong to women and their doctors, not politicians or the government. [washingtontimes.com]
  • Former President Trump would support a national ban on abortions around 15 weeks of pregnancy. [washingtontimes.com]
  • The use of abortion pills by women on their own skyrocketed in the months immediately following the Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling that overturned the Roe v. Wade decision. [newsmax.com]
  • Abortion pills have become easier to get since the immediate aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. [newsmax.com]
  • The Supreme Court appeared skeptical of rolling back access to the abortion pill. [washingtontimes.com]
  • Some justices suggested that the pro-life doctors lacked standing, or sufficient legal injury, to challenge the FDA’s changes to its distribution and usage of mifepristone. [washingtontimes.com]
  • Danco Laboratories, a producer of mifepristone, petitioned the high court over its production of the pill, challenging the lower court’s restrictions on its distribution. [washingtontimes.com]
  • Several protesters have been arrested outside the Supreme Court. [washingtonexaminer.com]
  • President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have made abortion a key part of their reelection pitch, and a ruling favoring the group of religious doctors who oppose chemical abortions could give Democrats additional fuel. [washingtonexaminer.com]
  • A ruling in the case before the Supreme Court could have national implications and offer a lifeline to Biden, who has been trailing former President Donald Trump in various key swing states. [washingtonexaminer.com]

What is the Center media saying:

  • Justice Amy Coney Barrett appeared skeptical about the plaintiffs’ standing to bring the lawsuit against the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.Barrett questioned whether doctors involved in the case, such as Christina Francis, had standing to sue based on their theory that they might be required to treat a woman in an emergency room due to complications from mifepristone. [newsweek.com]
  • The plaintiffs, a group of doctors who oppose abortion, persuaded a lower-court judge to de-authorize the FDA’s approval of mifepristone in 2000. [economist.com]
  • Former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance wrote that “the carefully written affidavits from some of the doctors fell short of establishing that they had ever been called upon to provide care for a women that required them to do what Justice Barrett characterized as terminating embryonic or fetal life.”Vance added, “When you’ve lost Justice Barrett on this issue, you’re in trouble.” [newsweek.com]
  • Law professor Dan Urman told Newsweek that he believed the Supreme Court would rule 7-2 against the anti-abortion group that sued the FDA, with conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting. [newsweek.com]

What is the Liberal media saying:

  • The hearing on mifepristone is the most consequential abortion-related case since the overturning of Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago. [theguardian.com]
  • Mifepristone is the first pill in a two-drug regimen used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the country. [theguardian.com]
  • “This is something I shouldn’t have to reveal to strangers or to politicians for my choice to be respected. An abortion is supposed to be between a patient and their provider.” [Brittany House, Planned Parenthood patient advocate, theguardian.com]
  • Self-managed abortions have soared since the Supreme Court eliminated federal protection for abortion in June 2022, paving the way for nearly two dozen states to restrict or ban access to the procedure. [theguardian.com]
  • “It allows them to access medication abortion in the comfort and privacy of their own home. Not being able to have this option would be really, really challenging for a lot of patients who are trying to seek abortion care.” [Divya Shenoy, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, theguardian.com]
  • A majority of the justices appeared skeptical of the arguments in favor of restricting access to mifepristone put forth by a group of anti-abortion doctors. [theguardian.com]
  • “Abortion would be a defining issue of the 2024 election, especially in suburban areas.” [Julie von Haefen, Democratic state lawmaker from North Carolina, theguardian.com]

Sources:

  • washingtontimes.com
  • newsmax.com
  • Guttmacher Institute
  • KFF
  • washingtonexaminer.com
  • dailycaller.com
  • dailysignal.com
  • breitbart.com
  • newsweek.com
  • economist.com
  • theguardian.com
  • FDA

Links:

  • https://www.washingtontimes.com/
  • https://www.newsmax.com/
  • https://www.guttmacher.org/
  • https://www.kff.org/
  • https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/
  • https://dailycaller.com/
  • https://www.dailysignal.com/
  • https://www.breitbart.com/
  • https://www.newsweek.com/
  • https://www.economist.com/
  • https://www.theguardian.com/
  • https://www.fda.gov/