The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will consider whether to restrict access to a widely used abortion drug — even in states where the procedure is still allowed.
The case concerns the drug mifepristone that — when coupled with another drug — is one of the most common abortion methods in the United States.
The decision means the conservative-leaning court will again wade into the abortion debate after overturning Roe v. Wade last year, altering the landscape of abortion rights nationwide and triggering more than half the states to outlaw or severely restrict the procedure.
What authority does the Constitution give to dispense medical advice and regulate medical treatment?
Ask the FDA. What authority does it have to regulate most things.
Edit: so, they don’t have authority to regulate women’s abortion choices, but do have the authority to regulate every other part of your medical decision?
Fuck that. You want an abortion? Get one. A joint? Go nuts. Experimental cancer meds? I wish you well.
Your medical choices should be between you and your doctor, not you, your doctor and a legislature.
Did you actually use my question to excoriate the FDA?
Here’s news, pal: regulations are written in blood becuase corporations will cheerfully and willingly kill for profit.
The power corporations have to willfully and cheerfully kill for profit comes from libertarian clowns and their arrogant assholerie.
No, I’m calling you out for choosing to care about human rights when it suits you.
As opposed to when?
Well, the medical rights you imagine support abortion should also support a lot of other medical rights. I chose the FDA because they do things like tell cancer patients they can’t try experimental medications.
“can’t try”, or “doesn’t work”?
…because there are boatloads of “alternative” doctors and “medical” distributors in my area
These were terminal cancer patients and oncologist recommended, but it looks like we’ve made some effort to fix it. They have a “Right to Try” act program now, so that’s neat.
I think quacks should be able to be sued into oblivion by their
patientsvictims.
The FDA exercised its authority to regulati mifepristone already.
It absolutely did, and I trust the FDA much more than I trust a bunch of prejudicial bigots in black robes. I’m just funny that way.
Fuck the FDA.
I would if I could, son. I would if I could.
That is literally their entire purpose
I understand that. I was criticizing their view knowing they’d apply it to abortion, but nothing else.
Lemmings want the fed all up in their shit, except when they don’t.
Guys. This commenter sounds Libertarian-esque to me. In this case, individual bodily autonomy, Libertarians are on our side.
Some the other ideas however . . .
I’m a super liberal libertarian. Anticorp, IP is theft. We should use regs to dismantle corps, not build them.
Yeah. And when it comes to this one issue, Libertarians and Liberals are pretty much on the same page. Maybe different reasons, but the same page.
The government can fuck off and has no say in my medical . . . well anything.
I agree with most of your comment, but regulation to ensure safety also has its place. That said, I mostly agree it should still be available, with a warning about safety.
I’m not really commenting on that, to be honest. I’m not a huge fan of many regulations, but I only get worked up about the ones that fuck us.
Roe v Wade had a standard that was applied nowhere else and it’s frustrating nobody thought to back it up with law.
To be fair, abortion should be covered by the 9th amendment. There shouldn’t be a need for extra laws to cover it.
A lot of things fall in that category tho.
This will eventually extend to birth control.
Just you wait.
STDs are going to go through the roof. They already are, in part due to deteriorating public infrastructure and shittier sex ed. But this is going to make the quality of life for Americans go down. And increase DOA babies due to congenital syphilis.
I’m not American so maybe someone can explain this, the way your supreme court works sounds insane to me. Like what power does the US supreme court have that they can just ban drugs? Also what is stopping the states from just ignoring them on decisions like this?
Legislative branch writes the laws. Judicial branch interprets them. Executive branch executes/enforces them.
SCOTUS’s power comes from judicial review and precedent. They can’t make arbitrary decisions on arbitrary things. Someone has to bring a case through a ton of appeals and different courts, then SCOTUS can rule on their interpretation of the law and write one or more essays explaining why and the nuances of their decisions. Those decisions are then examples/precedents that are followed by lower courts in future cases, until someone goes through the process again and SCOTUS decides to take the case and change the precedent, which is even more difficult and rare.
In this case, it sounds like they’re arguing over if the FDA did their legally required due diligence. If not, then their approval is null and void, so the drug is banned.
A bunch of things stop states from ignoring their decisions. In this case, any company making the drug is not going to value it as worth the risk so it probably won’t even make it to court again.
Some federal laws are tied to federal funding. For example, the 21 drinking age is tied to funding for roads. States can choose to set the age to 18, but they lose out on funding.
States can decide to just ignore federal law and get away with it, so long as it’s not something the federal government is willing to fight for. For example, states legalize Marijuana essentially by deciding to just ignore the federal ban. The federal government doesn’t care enough to send in their own anti-weed police or to pass legislation to force states to ban it again.
It even applies at the federal level. The executive branch can decide to just ignore SCOTUS and do their own thing. For example, SCOTUS ruled in favor of Native American’s rights but Andrew Jackson ignored it and did the Trail of Tears anyway (he kicked tons of natives off their land with no shortage of human suffering and death along the way). The Legislative branch can fight against the Executive branch by withholding funding, but the Judicial branch doesn’t have any such “stick”.
It’s rare that situations happen where branches fight against each other or states defy the federal government, but it’s not unheaed of. It’s all part of the checks and balances. In any case, it needs to stay within some realm of reasonableness in order to get buy-in from other government officials and the populace as a whole.
They brought upon themselves an unusual position of ruling on abortion access even after its conservative majority declared that it would leave that question to the states.
And yet most everyone amongst us, you know us lowly civilians, actually want women to have abortion rights. The conservatives who represent us are not in any hurry to actually represent us at all, and seem only interested in doing the diametrically opposite of what people who elect them want them to be doing. Maybe it’s time to stop electing self-serving bastards - just a thought.
I’m so sick of this goddamn stupid supreme court shit. Abortion is a woman’s god-given right. And these drugs are the safest and easiest way. Taking them away will ONLY MEAN MORE ABORTIONS THAT ARE BOTCHED BY COAT HANGERS. It WILL NOT stop women from having abortions!! These stupid god damn filthy father fucking pieces of walking god damn dog excrement. I’m so fucking sick of this nonsense!!! There are just no words in the English language that can convey the level of hatred and loathing I feel for these black robed assholes.
Mifepristone and other abortion drugs aren’t going anywhere. The FDA is being challenged that it didn’t go through its own normal process as it relaxed the rules on prescribing and dispensing them, that’s it. If SCOTUS says that the FDA didn’t then the drugs will remain legal but go back to being somewhat harder to get…until the FDA does follow it’s own rules.
It’s a stupid waste of time but its not the world ending problem that its being made out to be.
Abortion is a woman’s god-given right.
Why has no one argued that rules against abortion infringe on religious liberty? The Bible contains directions for a priest to perform an abortion. In any case, someone could simply claim the law stops them from practicing their chosen faith.
I think some groups have, I know there are religions where abortion is very much a human right and they are trying to sue their state goverments, but it won’t do any good. We are in the grip of fascism, people - and that can’t be overcome by law suits.
Why even have regulating bodies? Chevron deference cannot go away. This is how the right continues to “dismantle the administrative state,” to use their own words.
This is real bad.
The Supreme Court, NOT medical professionals, will get to decide what life saving medications YOU get to take! It’s a good thing they aren’t corrupt and we’re appointed on merit without lying!
now in fairness, it’s because these people who are not at all trained in medicine or experimental design think that the people whose training and careers are exclusively in medicine and experimental design may have done it wrong.
part of the republican strategy for getting their wildly unpopular agenda through nationwide has been making sure that anyone anywhere is allowed to make a legally-enforcable decision IF they agree with it, but ensuring that no amount of expertise or personal stake qualifies you to make the opposite decision. Multiple doctors agree that your pregnancy is non-viable? Doesn’t matter, a city councilperson whose highest education is a GED has decided that doesn’t qualify you for an exception to their abortion laws. The opinion of several doctors, the patient and the patient’s parents is that the patient is trans? Not good enough, a complete stranger who knows neither you or anything that they’re talking about said “no”. You want books in your kids’ school library? Only if they’re approved by the Karenest Karen to ever Karen. It’s designed to be a ratchet effect. Anyone can turn the dial to the right, no one can turn it back to the left, they call it “freedom” and the absolute monsters they’re appealing to love it because the only freedoms they care about are the freedom to do what they want and the freedom to force everyone else to do what they want.
I suspect the Court is politically savvy enough to avoid making mifepristone illegal right before the election. They’ll make a soft open-ended decision that leaves it unrestricted and come back to it in a few years, then make it illegal.
Have you been living under a rock for the last couple of decades? The newest chucklefucks appointed to SCOTUS don’t give two shits about appearances and will do whatever they want at any time.
They care a lot about appearances, what they don’t care about is actual popular opinion or democracy.
I suspect the Court is politically savvy enough to avoid making mifepristone illegal right before the election.
That question isn’t before the court and making mifepristone illegal isn’t even a potential outcome of this case.
God whatever, they won’t restrict it nationwide either. I’m almost certain they won’t do anything controversial that close to the election.
Oh it’s quite possible that they’ll rule the FDA didn’t follow their process and return some restrictions. This court does care about optics but not to the point that they’ll change rulings over it. If that were true then Roe wouldn’t have been overturned.
Overturning Roe wasn’t close to an upcoming election! They underestimated how long voter’s memories would be, they’ll be very careful this time. Especially because this is Trump’s last stand.
youre more optimistic than me. to me, they pull an unpopular move in a time when trump isn’t likely to win, wait four years, until a non-Trump conservative gets the nomination - win.
or they do it and trump wins anyway- win.
Optimistic? I think a favorable ruling on this issue will be weaponized to deflate anti-Trump voters. “See? You were worried about nothing, the Supreme Court is still a legitimate institution.”
