20
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US 5th Circuit Court of Appeal rejects challenge to Mifeprestone abortion pill’s approval, but upholds some restrictions
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- Authors
- Kate Riga, Emine Yücel, Josh Kovensky
- Published
- Aug 16 2023
- Word count
- 81 words
It’s utterly horrifying to see this come through. Everything about this case fills me with unbridled rage. I read a very good comment from someone on the Washington Post’s article about the decision that said something to the effect of “when a woman’s uterus is more regulated than an assault rifle, there’s a war on women.”
Current events seem to be pointing to this as true. I’m not one to overreact, but I feel as though I am watching my country turn into some nightmare combination of oligarchy and theocracy, and I am terrified.
Fuckers really get off on the idea of women turning abortion into a sport. As if women just love the feeling of intense cramps, uncontrollable blood, and flu like symptoms. Yep, it's so addicting that it's their vice.
How can you even begin to reason with someone that has that mindset. I wish it was rare, but I've heard all about those "abortion loving whores" from tons of people. How abortion wouldn't be a problem is those "whores" could just "keep their legs crossed". We as society have such a massive hill to climb before we can even have real discussions, let alone solutions.
Help us organize and fight! It may be too late but it might not.
It’s only too late when you’re in the ground!! I agree 100%, but I also want to acknowledge my anxieties, you know? Pretending they don’t exist will only sap energy away from the war.
for some more info about the Comstock Act crap, the excellent Abortion, Every Day substack had an article about it a few weeks ago (and here's the corresponding Tildes thread)
Holy wow, that’s incredibly informative and sobering. Thanks for sharing—I hadn’t seen that and while I won’t say I’m glad, it’s important to read regardless.
The more uncomfortable reality is that we're in a democracy. There are numerous states with strong abortion rights. What's preventing the rest from joining is that the people who vote do not support abortion rights. There is nothing that can be changed until that is resolved - no hidden evil group to take out. Just convincing people that what you believe is the right thing to believe.
no. on the issue of abortion rights, we absolutely are not.
the Dobbs decision was 6-3. of the 6 conservative justices, 5 were appointed by Presidents who lost the popular vote. ironically, the only conservative on the court who has any claim to democratic legitimacy is Clarence Thomas, who was appointed by George H.W. Bush.
the conservative argument in favor of Dobbs was much like you said - that it allows states to regulate abortion if they choose. blah blah blah laboratories of democracy.
but, as we see here, the opponents of abortion rights aren't content with blue states allowing abortions while red states ban them. in this lawsuit, they're seeking a nationwide ban on mifeprestone. if they got their way, a Trump-appointed judge in Texas would have banned the right of someone in Washington state, where I am, to access mifeprestone.
also, from last year: These Republicans cheered abortion policy going to states. They are also sponsoring a federal ban. (archive link) which has receipts of conservative lawmakers who sponsored a complete federal ban on abortions while also repeating the talking point that Dobbs allowed state control of reproductive rights.
(also, prior to Dobbs, the precedent was 1992's Planned Parenthood v Casey, which already allowed states to regulate abortion, but not to ban it entirely or impose an "undue burden" on the right to access an abortion. so the entire "states rights" argument is utter nonsense.)
just last week, we saw Ohio issue 1 get defeated, which would have required a 60% supermajority to amend the state constitution, as well as given rural voters outsized influence in determining which initiatives even qualify for the ballot to be voted on (see my comment here for more details). this was done in direct response to an initiative in November that will protect the right to an abortion.
they are literally doing the meme of "conservatives: let states regulate abortion", "Ohio voters: OK, we're going to codify the right to an abortion in our state constitution", "conservatives: wait no not like that"
the vast majority of people support abortion rights. in this poll from last month, opposition to a 6-week abortion ban (which is essentially a total ban, because when a woman misses her period and wonders if she might be pregnant, she is already at "4 weeks pregnant" because the counter starts from her previous period):
73% of all US adults
88% of Democrats
70% of self-identified independents
56% of Republicans
there is zero democratic legitimacy to banning abortions.
With all due respect, I feel like thats a very simplistic way of looking at what’s happening. We are in a democracy now, yes, but it’s more than that. If we didn’t have a case being brought before our radicalized courts going after a regulatory agency for a drug that has been on the market for 20 years, I would agree that voting and convincing people could fix it. But I think it is a bigger issue than simply “voting”. We live in an era of hyperfast information ecosystems, active disinformation campaigns from adversarial governments, a broken healthcare system, weakening voting rights, a disappearing middle class, and corporate monopolies in all but name determining how and what we access.
I’m not saying it’s impossible, not at all, but I am saying we can no longer rely on “we’ll just vote!” as a panacea to solve this issue.
Allow me to add the Federalist Society and the history of their coordinated efforts to stack the courts with their members to promote pro corporate, pro wealth and socially conservative agendas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Society
It will be a slow process to change the slant of the courts, but if we can manage it, voting is a necessary step for change to happen. I do think swing voters and casual voters are being alienated by some of these hard right moves by both courts and law makers. But we need to organize hard and move the ball forward.
The majority of Republicans, the vast majority of independents, and the overwhelming majority of Democrats think it should be legal.
Convincing people isn't the problem.
Having our government correctly represent the people is the problem. And it's most of the problem with the US government. Too much anti-democratic minority rule.
Here is a link to a talk given by Lawrence Lessig in 2014 on institutional corruption. The time stamp where the link starts he’s citing a Princeton study that establishes statistically that there is no longer a correlation between voting and legislation. Meaning we don’t live in a representative democracy anymore.
https://youtu.be/CgAcGuxy-yo?t=2130
The entire talk is essential viewing IMO (you can skip everything before Larry takes the stage) and also I think a chunk of the reason we got Trump. Some real actual changes were getting going before the GOP started going full terrorist.