Oral arguments in the abortion pill case: Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the abortion pill case it is currently hearing, involving access to mifepristone, which is used in medical abortions up to 10 weeks of gestation.
“The justices are reviewing rule changes in 2016 and 2021 that, among other things, made the drug available by mail and from a health care provider other than a doctor,” he reports The Washington Post.
Most of the justices seemed skeptical “that plaintiffs, who do not prescribe abortion pills or regularly treat abortion patients, had standing to bring the challenge,” according to THE New York Times. It appears that the plaintiffs may have failed to show that they suffer material harm because of the widespread availability of mifepristone, although Erin Hawley, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom and wife of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who was arguing before the court – said that if women suffer complications after taking mifepristone, pro-life doctors may be forced to choose between helping such patients or violating their deeply held beliefs.
But “under federal law, no doctor can be forced against his or her conscience to perform or assist in an abortion, right?” Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked.
Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the attorney general defending the government, said Hawley and co. did not “come within 100 miles of the type of circumstances this court has previously identified” as grounds for supporting and challenging plaintiffs’ arguments about the safety of the abortion pill. The remedy sought by the plaintiffs – nationwide restrictions on access to mifepristone – also seems unlikely to work.
“This case seems like a great example of how to turn what might be a small lawsuit into a nationwide legislature over an FDA rule or any other federal government action,” Justice Neil Gorsuch said yesterday.
Alabama referendum on IVF decision: In February, the Alabama state Supreme Court ruled, somewhat controversially, that frozen embryos deserve the same kind of legal protection afforded to children.
Yesterday, a woman named Marilyn Lands flipped a state House seat from red to blue after campaigning in opposition to the in vitro fertilization (IVF) decision and abortion restrictions (including sharing her own story of abort several decades ago, after doctors determined that her baby would not live long outside the womb).
Republicans, of course, will still maintain their majority in the House, but it’s an interesting result that provides further fodder for the hypothesis that restrictions on abortion – and, in Alabama’s case, also restrictions on in vitro fertilization – are unpopular among most voters.
For pro-lifers like me who favor restrictions on the procedure (against most libertarians), this is disheartening, but it is a political reality we must confront.
Scenes from New York: Today, the Eric Adams administration began handing out prepaid debit cards to illegal immigrants who entered the city. The program, expected to cost $53 million, aims to provide migrants with the ability to secure their own food and necessities – via bodega or grocery store – to address the problem of food waste in migrant shelters (of which I spoke in this section several months ago). does).
According to the city’s Office of Housing Preservation and Development, “a family of four would receive $15,000 per year” under this program. “This cost-saving measure will replace the city’s current system of providing boxes of non-perishable food to migrant families staying in hotels, many of which are often discarded,” a spokesperson for Adams said. They claim that the new program could save up to $600,000 per month.
But this is an extraordinary amount of spending – underwritten by New York City taxpayers – distributed to an unlimited number of people who have not paid (and perhaps he won’t pay) in the system. What happens when people respond to incentives and the number of illegal immigrants seeking government-provided money and housing is absolutely exorbitant?
QUICK SHOTS
- Incredible scenes of student activists at Vanderbilt calling 911 for help with a… friend/activist who needed to change his pad? Story: The Vanderbilt Divest Coalition staged a sit-in in the chancellor’s office “after an amendment to Vanderbilt’s Student Government Constitution, which would prevent student government funds from going to certain businesses that support Israel, was removed from administration officials from a student ballot in late March,” for Tennessee. “Vanderbilt has established locations on campus where protesting is prohibited, including most of the perimeter of Kirkland Hall,” which the protesters object to (and could be an interesting free speech dimension to the story), according to THE The Vanderbilt Scammers. But the students, who fear arrest or disciplinary action if they leave the area they are occupying (even to go to the bathroom), called 911 claiming that another activist was experiencing symptoms of shock syndrome toxic from leaving a pad in for too long. for a long time while he protested. “Ma’am, do you have an emergency?” the operator asked incredulously. “So you’re telling me your friend in Kirland needs an ambulance?!”
- Yesterday “marks the 25th anniversary of Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s conviction of second-degree murder for performing euthanasia on Thomas Youk, a Michigan man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease,” writes Jeffrey A. Singer For Reason. “Kevorkian, a medical pathologist, had defied state laws by engaging in assisted suicide.”
- Related: “A Calgary judge has issued a ruling that clears the way for a 27-year-old woman to receive medical assistance in dying (MAID) despite her father’s attempts through the courts to stop that from happening,” reports CBC . The father “believes that his daughter ‘is vulnerable and does not have the necessary skills to make the decision to take her own life,'” according to [the judge’s] summary of the father’s position.” The daughter’s only known current diagnoses are autism and ADHD.
- Chicago voters smartly rejected a proposal that would have raised taxes on real estate transactions of $1 million or more.
- YES:
It is increasingly difficult to escape the conclusion that the continued push for minimum wage increases despite their foreseeable negative consequences is a triumph of in-group signaling over concern for the material well-being of the poor https://t.co/nRQYqQpScn
— Chris Freiman (@cafreiman) March 26, 2024
- If I were a woman betting, I would bet that people report increased participation:
Worship attendance rates @Gallup pic.twitter.com/uzI0nrVZhA
— @markdtooley (@markdtooley) March 26, 2024