A pro-abortion demonstrator outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Mar. 26 tells reporters that the dug mifepristone ” … tastes like candy (Image courtesy of Facebook).
SALT LAKE CITY – Dancing to the tune being played by President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, Utah Democrats were quick to condemn a Mar. 26 hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court as another step toward a nationwide ban on abortion.
“Today’s Supreme Court hearing is a stark reminder that Donald Trump and his (Make America Great Again) allies are using every avenue possible to ban abortion nationwide and devastate Utah’s reproductive freedom,” warned Diane Lewis, the chair of the Utah Democratic Party.
“This case could strip away access to medication abortion everywhere in this country, including Utah, which would be the biggest step toward their extreme goal since Trump overturned Roe v. Wade,” according to Lewis.
Fact-checking Lewis’ histrionics, former President Trump didn’t overturn Roe v. Wade. Trump had already left office when the Supreme Court issued its 2021 landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning its previous 1973 ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion.
Moreover, contrary to Lewis’ prediction, the SCOTUS justices – including the court’s conservative majority – appeared skeptical of a lower court ruling that would restrict access to abortion medication during oral arguments on Mar. 26.
In those hearings, most of the justices expressed concerns that the 5th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals had gone too far in supporting a challenge by anti-abortion groups and a few physicians to the federal Food and Drug Administration’s loosening of regulations governing access to the abortion medication mifepristone.
Manufactured by Danco Laboratories, mifepristone is a drug that blocks a hormone called progesterone that is needed for a pregnancy to continue.
Mifepristone, when used together with another medicine called misoprostol, is used to end a pregnancy through ten weeks gestation (70 days or less since the first day of pregnancy).
Even conservatives on the High Court openly questioned why the moral objections of “a handful of doctors” should lead to a ruling that would limit abortion access to abortion medication in all 50 states, particularly given the fact that those physicians had already been given conscience protection by federal law.
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch noted that there has been a rash of sweeping court orders in recent years and called the mifepristone challenge a “prime example of turning what could be a small lawsuit” into a nationwide ban of certain type of medication.
As the November election cycle heats up, Democrats – including those in Utah – have jumped on every available excuse to label Republicans and Trump supporters as “MAGA extremists.”
“Utahns know that reproductive rights are on the ballot in November,” according to Lewis. “The only way to protect Utah’s freedoms is to send President Biden and Vice President (Kamala) Harris back to the White House.”
In a strictly literal sense, reproductive rights will not be on the general election ballot in November.
But Lewis insists that Biden, if re-elected, will promote those rights by calling on Congress to codify Roe v. Wade into law; support the FDA’s evidence-based approval of mifepristone; fight to ensure that women have access to emergency medical care, privacy protections and contraception; guarantee a woman’s right to travel for medical care; and veto any national abortion ban.