Home WebMail Friday, November 1, 2024, 04:33 AM | Calgary | -3.2°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Posted: 2024-06-13T18:57:09Z | Updated: 2024-06-13T18:57:09Z

Despite the Supreme Court unanimously rejecting an attack on abortion pills this week, pro-choice advocates are cautioning against calling the decision a win and for good reason.

The ruling rejected the anti-abortion plaintiffs on standing, not on the merits of the case, which simply maintains the status quo of abortion access in the U.S. The decision does not offer additional protections to mifepristone, the abortion drug at the center of the case, and the door is wide open for continued attacks.

There are a few ways Donald Trump could circumvent the courts and Congress to ban mifepristone across the country if he wins the presidency in November. Trumps anti-abortion allies have outlined the presumptive GOP presidential nominees second-term agenda in Project 2025 , a wish list of extreme policy proposals that would reshape the federal government. There are at least three ways Trump can use executive action to ban abortion nationwide, including in states where abortion care is currently protected.

He has a literal blueprint to expand the chaos and cruelty hes already created nationwide, even in states where abortion is currently legal, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the Biden-Harris campaign manager, told reporters in a call on Thursday.

Trump's second-term agenda threatens women in all 50 states.

- Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden-Harris campaign

Donald Trump s anti-reproductive freedom agenda is not just a threat to red states, she continued. Trumps second-term agenda threatens women in all 50 states, and its extremely dangerous for womens health care and our families.

As president, Trump could replace the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and direct them to revoke the agencys approval of mifepristone. Mifepristone is prescribed as part of a two-drug regimen alongside misoprostol for abortion and miscarriage care which together are used in more than 60% of abortions in the U.S. The drug was approved by the FDA in 2000 and has since been used safely and effectively by nearly 6 million Americans, according to the agency.

Trumps ability to appoint a new FDA commissioner would take mifepristone out of circulation, effectively implementing an abortion ban in both red and blue states. Recalling mifepristone would have devastating effects on abortion care in the U.S., as well as care for other medical conditions that are treated with mifepristone, like Cushing syndrome and hyperglycemia.

The other proposal outlined in Project 2025 includes enforcing the Comstock Act , a 150-year-old law that criminalizes sending obscene materials in the mail, including anything intended for producing abortion. Around 20 states enacted abortion bans after the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade in 2022 forcing some pregnant people to travel out of state to get care, or else continue with an unwanted or unsafe pregnancy.

But abortion rates have generally stayed the same in large part because people can still access abortion pills by mail. The Comstock Act would prohibit sending pills by mail to any state in the country, creating a backdoor abortion ban overnight.

The Comstock Act is a dangerous weapon for anti-abortion groups, and they know it. Jonathan Mitchell, an attorney representing Trump in his own case before the Supreme Court, has said that Republicans dont need a nationwide abortion ban because the Comstock Act exists.

We dont need a federal ban when we have Comstock on the books, Mitchell told The New York Times in February. Mitchell is also the architect of the Texas abortion bounty hunter law, which banned abortion in the state over a year before Roe v. Wade was repealed.

He added about Trump: I hope he doesnt know about the existence of Comstock, because I just dont want him to shoot off his mouth. I think the pro-life groups should keep their mouths shut as much as possible until the election.