This is a breaking story which will be subject to updates.

https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/04/21/supreme-court-preserves-access-to-abortion-pill-for-now/

By MARK SHERMAN (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — "The Supreme Court on Friday preserved women’s access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion, rejecting lower-court restrictions while a lawsuit continues.

The justices granted emergency requests from the Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, maker of the drug mifepristone."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2023 12:44AM by summer.

Thankfully

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2023 10:43AM by anybody.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2023 08:36PM by Nightingale.

the courts & laws should protect people by discouraging bad - unhealthy choices & conduct.

I believe in individual responsibility for all, not as enforcing purely moral conduct or religious beliefs.

If men could get pregnant Abortion would be available freely & morning after pills & pregnancy prevention would be over the counter products.

Exactly

This case has two huge procedural holes. First, the statutory time frame for challenging a drug approval in court closed almost 20 years ago. Second, the plaintiffs don’t have standing, since they weren’t injured by the drug.

Despite that, two justices, Thomas and Alito, dissented from the stay, in what was described as a C- bit of legal reasoning.

So we know for sure that five justices voted for the stay, and two opposed it.

I think that the only valid argument that the plaintiffs have is the obscure law about sending abortifacients through the mail. They may win that small concession.

What a fascinating word!!

Yes the The Comstock Act of 1873 made it illegal to send “obscene, lewd or lascivious,” “immoral,” or “indecent” publications through the mail. They still think they can use that to prevent women from obtaining it in time to use.

Here's my big plan:

Get some judge to rule the exact same thing for Viagra that the Texas judge ruled for mifepristone. Then have it tried by the Supremes the exact same way. Wouldn't you think Viagra contributes more to obscene, lewd or lascivious definitions?

Know any "radical judges" who would do what the Texas judge pulled?

Ooh, I like that idea. I suppose it would apply even more to sex toys that are obtained via mail order. Not that I want to deprive any adult of his or her sex toys, but it would make a point.

lolol

I'm shocked!

I thought those brown paper bags and boxes on your doorstep were liquors!

And if you live in the women’s healthcare wasteland, the only way to get the pills is through the mail.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/us/abortion-pill-supreme-court-reactions.html?smid=url-share

I’m not certain this link will work. If it does, there’s a scary graphic of the US showing where pills potentially won’t be mailed.

But states don’t run the USPS.

@BOJ, you know I love you. Restricting access through the mail is not a small concession!

ETA Damn you NYT! It won’t give me the option to gift it either.

ETA okay. Let’s try this one https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/04/21/us/abortion-pill-supreme-court?unlocked_article_code=hyPAz7Mf4luTp0bG9Fu2fLJTy0FA8wuLVseftKTqt7HDnx3c840Bvhqb5p2KrCcUiCRwnBp6qpatWzuzJOHtXqCOYIyK_hpcZfg0yBw9YP0bhiDRcyOsOzI1e3ie9Mlj6UOjq4ymiApbgXjHywjwQ_mZMSzsecVs9jOORm4uUsfuqN1o_LwjANBOcfKslGxoZ-lB2ErAUyQpGIXhkYQCdxjGhO2enj9c9XHqMpwhjdobcWopUvlvh1M4eG0WTFnczvgwmRjY9KwGDz-PLfPClDsI4wF52JD0cFejtIGkYBrLv1KaVqxirBdeKfG587i7iNdgRRcfsJx-HqEFFylxOnpv7Aagqxz7Xg&giftCopy=4_Disclaimer&smid=url-share



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2023 12:13PM by Beth.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This case has two huge procedural holes. First,
> the statutory time frame for challenging a drug
> approval in court closed almost 20 years ago.
> Second, the plaintiffs don’t have standing,
> since they weren’t injured by the drug.

Four huge procedural holes. Besides your two, there are

1) Administrative law. The constitution and precedent establish that Congress and not the judiciary are to make the rules. That's the only way it makes sense. Judges are jurists; they are not medics or scientists. You cannot have people whose sole qualification is a law degree second-guessing scientists. The law says that an administrative decision like the FDA's can only be overturned if it was rash or reckless AS PROVEN BY SCIENCE. In this case the TX buffoon violated the constitution--and Alito, Thomas, and ultimately some others have now voted to overturn the expert decisions, leaving every single administrative decision subject to review by judges with no expertise in the field.

Welcome to the the tyranny of a judiciary that does not recognize the coequality of the other constitutional branches.

2) Forum shopping. If a plaintiff wants to go to court, s/he must go to the forum in which s/he resides. S/he may not search around the country for a judge who will rule the desired way. Here a plaintiff without standing shopped for a forum whose decision was predictable and--truly shocking--the 5th Circuit ignored the fatal procedural violations and SCOTUS did not reject the appeal on procedural grounds.

There has never been a time in US history when the courts have so blatantly ignored the constitution. This is every bit as much an attempted coup as the tourist visit of January 6th.

Thank you. I have no idea what Thomas and Alito are thinking, other than that they are entitled to be a law unto themselves. Even coming from them, that is startling.

The Kasczmarek decision seems like bad law 8 ways from Sunday.

Just so.

Kasczmarek's decision should have been reversed for lack of standing. Period. It should never been heard on the merits.

These "conservative" judges and justices are nothing but. All of their complaints of judicial overreach by liberals were just hypocritical nonsense.

(Some) Republicans say they’re against introsive laws & governing.

Yeah right

Only if it involves guns. If it limits the rights of uppity women folk they are all in

Well put.

Another point is that mifepristone is also useful for treating Cushing's Disease, specifically (from what I understand,) where diabetes is also present.

People who have Cushing's Disease could make an effective argument that they need access to mifepristone by all reasonable means, including by mail.

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another point is that mifepristone is also useful
> for treating Cushing's Disease, specifically (from
> what I understand,) where diabetes is also
> present.
>
> People who have Cushing's Disease could make an
> effective argument that they need access to
> mifepristone by all reasonable means, including by
> mail.


There’s a reason scientists, researchers, clinicians et al must undertake many years of education and gain expertise to be allowed to enter and practice in their chosen fields. It’s because Things are Complicated.

Very unfortunately, mifepristone has come to be known as ‘the abortion pill’. There are many other uses for it, now and potentially in future, reasons it shouldn’t be criticized, condemned or banned, certainly not by people with little to zero knowledge of the bigger picture.

How about using it to help people with major and life-impacting/threatening disorders such as Cushing’s/diabetes, Gulf War syndrome and various cancers?


https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/abortion-pill-may-treat-dozens-diseases-roe-reversal-might-upend-resea-rcna34812

Excerpts:

“Dr. Nancy Klimas has spent the better part of her three-decade research career trying to find a cure for Gulf War illness. Military veterans with the unusual, unexplained illness — which affects some 300,000 U.S. service members who fought in the 1991 Operation Desert Storm — suffer from a range of symptoms, including constant aches and pains, trouble concentrating, fatigue, respiratory issues and irritable bowel syndrome, all understood to stem from exposure to neurotoxic chemicals during combat.


“Apart from symptom management — which she says is really just “chasing the tail of the dog” — there’s no treatment for Gulf War illness. And the clock is ticking: According to Klimas, director of the Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, the condition could turn into severe neurodegenerative disease if left untreated.


“I’m anxious to get in there and help these veterans as soon as we possibly can,” said Klimas, who is also the director of the Environmental Medical Research Program at the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “It’s already been 30 years.”


“Now, with a clinical trial for male veterans she’s launching at the Miami Veterans Affairs Hospital, she hopes this help will finally come. The study is testing out a combination of two drugs, both already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for different uses [etanercept (for arthritis) and mifepristone (for its better known use)].


“Apart from its two FDA-approved uses, mifepristone is also being investigated in clinical trials for breast cancer, brain cancer, prostate cancer, alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, among other conditions” (including ovarian cancer).”


Dr. Klimas states “Pregnancy is not one of the things male veterans worry about.”

No kidding.


It’s very concerning when people, who should know better, step outside their own areas of expertise and assume they have the training, knowledge, wisdom or right to make decisions that create potentially life-altering situations for others.

You can be a world-beater as a judge but an ignoramus in other areas. People should stay in their own lane. Or else embark on a series of continuing education courses to get up, and keep up, to speed.

And besides, we in North America like to imagine that we have a common value in that little principle called Freedom of Choice, partnered with the allied concept of Personal Liberty.

So my neighbour is perfectly at liberty to tell me to get my hands, and nose, out of her medicine cabinet.

And I'm at liberty to disagree with her choices (if it were even any of my business). But not to bar her from making them.