Trump claims he’s a moderate on abortion after taking credit for stacking the courts with extreme anti-abortion judges – news round-up

Women won’t be ‘conned’ by Trump’s abortion dance, Sen. Tina Smith says In the video announcing his position on the divisive issue, Trump did not rule out signing a national abortion ban. And he didn’t mention executive actions he could take without Congress that could curb access to abortion, even in blue states. Read more … Read more

Supreme Court skepticism of 5th Circuit’s mifepristone ban case, and takeaways from the hearing

Justices appear skeptical of call to restrict abortion pill Read more at Politico US supreme court hearing not a success for anti-abortion doctors, experts say Justices appear unconvinced by anti-abortion doctors’ standing to sue during hearing over access to FDA-approved pill mifepristone Read more at The Guardian Even the Supreme Court seems sick of its … Read more

All about the Comstock Act and the Supreme Court mifepristone hearing

What is the Comstock Act of 1873 and how is it tied to abortion pill case? The Comstock Act is a set of federal laws passed by Congress in 1873. It made it illegal to send “obscene, lewd or lascivious,” “immoral” or “indecent” materials through mail, including drugs that induce abortions and contraception. Read more … Read more

The next Clarence Thomas? Abortion pill case spotlights rightwing judge and his wife’s shadowy connections

“If Trump wins the election, you’ll see Ho on the short list of nominees to the supreme court,” he said. “He is obviously behaving in a way that makes him a very prominent candidate in a Republican administration.” Read more at The Guardian  

The Supreme Court will hear arguments for FDA v Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine on March 26

What’s at stake in the Supreme Court mifepristone case Legal scholars like Ziegler also note that there’s an even bigger way that this case could affect everyone in the country. “You have, lurking in the background, the possibility that the Comstock Act is going to be reinvented as an abortion ban,” she says. Read more … Read more

Ramifications if the Supreme Court unwinds protections for mifpristone

‘Cruel’: the supreme court could send one-time abortion deserts like Hawaii back in time If the supreme court rewinds these measures, many people will likely have to go to much greater lengths to end their pregnancies. The availability of abortion in the US would plummet, abortion providers and their supporters told the Guardian – even … Read more

Pharmaceutical companies worry the Supreme Court’s abortion pill ruling could have a wider effect on drugs and research

A Supreme Court case over whether to tighten restrictions on mifepristone – one of two drugs used in the medication abortion regimen – could destabilize the American pharmaceutical industry, deterring companies from developing new drugs and even inspiring copycat lawsuits intended to revoke authorization of other politically contentious medications. Read more at 19th News  

How The Far Right Engineered An Assault On Abortion Access, Even In Blue States

“They’re not legitimate medical groups sounding an alarm. They’re ideological organizations, basically registering a website and using it to roll back reproductive rights,” Caroline Ciccone, president of the watchdog group Accountable.Us, said Thursday. “Basically, it’s a contrived coalition of extremist groups.” Read more at HuffPost  

Research paper anti-abortion groups cite is retracted

Research at the heart of a federal case against the abortion pill has been retracted Sage, the publisher of the journal, retracted the study on Monday along with two other papers, explaining in a statement that “expert reviewers found that the studies demonstrate a lack of scientific rigor that invalidates or renders unreliable the authors’ … Read more