Joe Biden’s Justice Department said on Thursday that it will ask the Supreme Court to overturn restrictions Matthew Kacsmaryk—a right-wing, stridently antiabortion judge—put on the abortion pill mifepristone last week. The announcement came hours after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals halted Kacsmaryk’s decision to suspend the FDA’s nearly 23-year-old approval of the drug, but preserved his order to require the pill to be dispensed in person (rather than via mail) and restrict the pill’s use to the first seven weeks of pregnancy. In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said: “The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA to deny in part our request for a stay pending appeal. We will be seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court to defend the FDA’s scientific judgment and protect Americans’ access to safe and effective reproductive care.” Speaking to reporters, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration “will prevail because we believe that the law is on our side.”
While Kacsmaryk’s ruling was widely expected—given the judge’s viewpoints not only on abortion but also same-sex marriage, sex outside of marriage, birth control, and no-fault divorce—it was nevertheless a shocking move; legal experts have said the suit would have been laughed out of court by any other judge. Among its many apparent defects is the overarching claim that the FDA erred in declaring mifepristone safe and effective back in 2000. How do we know that the FDA was not, in fact, wrong to do so? Perhaps it’s the 23 years of proof. As CBS News notes, according to the agency, more than 5 million women have taken the drug since it was approved more than two decades ago, and through June 2022, only 28 deaths had been reported, “some of which were associated with ‘obvious alternative causes’ unrelated to use of the abortion pill.”
Or, put another way:
Data analyzed by CNN shows mifepristone is even safer than some common, low-risk prescription drugs, including penicillin and Viagra. There were five deaths associated with mifepristone use for every 1 million people in the US who have used the drug since its approval in 2000, according to the US Food and Drug Administration as of last summer. That’s a death rate of 0.0005%.
Comparatively, the risk of death by penicillin—a common antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections like pneumonia—is four times greater than it is for mifepristone, according to a study on life-threatening allergic reactions. Risk of death by taking Viagra—used to treat erectile dysfunction—is nearly 10 times greater, according to a study cited in the amicus brief filed by the FDA.
Yet somehow, we don’t see Kacsmaryk—who, in his ruling, used terms like “unborn human” and “unborn child” to describe a fetus—putting the kibosh on Viagra (or penicillin, for that matter).
As for how the Supreme Court might rule, that’s obviously unknowable at this time. On the one hand, it is stacked with antiabortion judges who gleefully overturned Roe v. Wade last year. On the other, some experts believe upholding Kacsmaryk would be a bridge too far even for them.
Republicans are flaming hypocrites, part 827,195,016
This, per NBC News, is bizarre on multiple levels:
Florida representative Randy Fine, a Republican, on Wednesday fervently defended a bill he’s sponsoring to criminalize “adult live performances” in front of children. “If it means erasing a community because you have to target children, then damn right, we ought to do it,” he said on the floor of the Florida House. Fine acknowledged that the legislation might criminalize the work of some of the state’s drag performers, many of whom have deep ties to the LGBTQ community. And if the bill becomes law, it may also criminalize the work of a Floridian he neglected to mention: his wife.
Wendy Fine is cohosting an annual gala on Saturday, which she has previously performed in, to raise money for a children’s charity, Spring Forward for Autism. The gala will take place at the Hilton Melbourne hotel in Melbourne, about an hour east of Orlando. It will be “an evening filled with sultry performers,” according to the nonprofit’s website, which lists Rep. Fine as one of the gala’s main sponsors. Images and videos on social media of past years’ events show women—including one who appears to be the lawmaker’s wife, who is tagged in the photos—posing and dancing in lingerie and revealing costumes.
As NBC News notes, the text of Fine’s bill defines the type of performance it would prohibit as “any show, exhibition, or other presentation in front of a live audience [that includes children], which, in whole or in part, depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities.” According to reporter Matt Lavietes, neither the charity’s website nor the invitation say that minors are excluded from attending the “sultry” event, and “a toddler can be seen in a video from last year’s event.”
Trump announces priorities for a potential second term
