*Destiny's Child Voice* Pills, Pills, Pills
The (almost) 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the latest on lawsuits over abortion pills.
Welcome to my weekly* roundup for people leaving Twitter or spending less time there. You can also find me on Mastodon at @SusanRinkunas@journa.host.
*Oops, it’s been a minute since my last lil dispatch because I moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn then the holidays happened and wow it’s the end of January now.
Anyway, last Sunday would have been the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling, if the cartoonishly corrupt Supreme Court hadn’t overturned it in June, ending the federal right to abortion. But as I explore in a reported essay, Roe really only said doctors could provide abortions—it never guaranteed people’s ability to get the procedure, and it definitely didn’t consider people who would self-manage their abortions with pills that became available nearly 30 years later. If Roe was never enough, why are mainstream organizations and Democratic leaders calling to merely restore it?
Also: Two states are being sued for restricting abortion pills beyond federal regulations, which is way overdue. But uhhhhh there’s that lawsuit filed in Texas claiming the FDA wrongly approved mifepristone in September 2000 and could result in abortion pills being banned nationwide. The next briefing deadline in that case is February 10, meaning Trump-appointed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk could issue his ruling then. Get caught up on this very, very bad case here.
Media appearances:
In December, I joined Zerlina Maxwell on Sirius XM and Melissa Harris Perry on WYNC’s The Takeaway to talk about the cynical right-wing effort to ban abortion pills even in blue states. You can listen to the latter segment here.
More things I wrote last week:
Tennessee Refuses Federal Money for HIV Testing Because Planned Parenthood Would Get Some of It
Suspect in Planned Parenthood Arson Was Mad That His Ex-Girlfriend Had an Abortion
After Nightmare Pregnancy Loss Under an Abortion Ban, Texas Woman Weighs Trying Again
A Big Legal Fight Is Brewing Over Whether States Can Actually Ban Abortion Pills
Wisconsin Supreme Court Candidate Is Trying to Open a Gun Range That Serves Alcohol
What I’m reading:
2023’s biggest, most unusual race centers on abortion and democracy, by Reid Epstein in The New York Times (same race as above, not great!!!)
The Case For Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan Calling It Quits, by Peter Shamshiri in Balls & Strikes
Utah Care Ban For Trans Youth Takes Effect Immediately, by Erin Reed in Substack
The House That Mr. Mayer Built: Inside the Union-Busting Birth of the Academy Awards, by David Thomson in Vanity Fair (2014)
Palate cleanser
Bye!