Culture Wars/Current Controversies

‘The Fate of the Abortion Pill Lies With the Same SCOTUS That Killed Roe’

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When right-wing judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk dropped his decision to roll back access to the abortion pill last week, the reaction on my timeline can be best summed up as “Calm down and trust the legal process.” Commenters ripped apart the Trump appointee’s pseudoscience-steeped opinion — which overturned the FDA’s 23-year approval of mifepristone — but assured Chicken Littles like myself that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court would step in and protect the pill. Well, overnight, the Fifth Circuit dropped its own ridiculous ruling, and now the medication’s future is in the hands of Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett and the rest of the Supremes. Today, New York‘s Irin Carmon explains what’s going on with the abortion-pill case and why the attack on the FDA’s legitimacy is troubling, even outside the abortion context. “Among the reasons patients have chosen medication abortion is because it’s the safest option they can access and because it offers privacy,” she writes. “The Court could take yet another option away from them, while opening the door to anyone, including anti-vaccine forces, to try to undo long-standing FDA approvals.” What medically sound but politically charged care could be targeted next?

— Marisa Carroll, features editor, New York

How Far Will the Supreme Court Go This Time? The fate of the abortion pill now lies with the same justices who killed Roe.

Photo: Johannes Arlt/laif/Redux
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Categories: Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Health and Medicine, Law/Justice, Men and Women, Sexuality and the State

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