We begin today’s show looking at the status of abortion access in the United States. Less than a year after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade, it’s expected to weigh in today on a ruling set to take effect Saturday that effectively overrides the Food and Drug Administration’s 20-year-old approval of the medication abortion pill mifepristone. This comes after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday partially blocked last week’s ruling by a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas that banned the pill nationwide. It upheld parts of the decision that will only allow patients to access the pill through a doctor’s office or clinic, and not through the mail or over the counter.
Meanwhile, in Washington state, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice has rebuffed Wednesday’s appeals court ruling, saying the drug is to remain available, restriction-free, in 17 states and the District of Columbia, following his ruling last Friday ordering the FDA to not roll back access to mifepristone, as a result of a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general in those 17 states and D.C.
Protests to save abortion are planned across the country this weekend, including in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis has just signed a six-week abortion ban into law that will take effect if Florida’s current 15-week ban is upheld at the conservative-controlled state Supreme Court, where it’s being challenged