On this edition of Your Call, we discuss the recent decision by a Trump-appointed Texas judge to overturn the FDA's approval of mifepristone, one of the two medications used in almost 60 percent of abortions in the US. An hour after that decision came down, a Washington state judge barred the FDA from restricting access to the drug in 17 states where Democrats sued to expand access to the pills.
On Monday, the Justice Department appealed the Texas judge’s decision. The government has asked the 5th Circuit judges to keep the order on hold until the appeal is decided. This issue is expected to make its way to the Supreme Court.
Who is taking these pills? What does access look like across the country? And what are the ramifications of a potential ban?
Guests:
Jessica Mason Pieklo, senior vice president and executive editor of the Rewire News Group, author of The End of Roe v. Wade: Inside the Right’s Plan to Destroy Legal Abortion, and co-host of the podcast Boom! Lawyered
Becca Andrews, investigative journalist with Reckon News, and author of No Choice: The Destruction of Roe v. Wade and the Fight to Protect a Fundamental American Right
Andrea Gallegos, executive administrator of the Alamo Women's Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Carbondale Illinois
Web Resources:
The New York Times: Two Federal Judges Issued Opposing Rulings on Abortion Pills. Here’s What’s Going On.
The Guardian: ‘Unborn human’: the anti-abortion rhetoric of Texas judge’s ruling
The Washington Post: Justice Department appeals Texas abortion pill ruling
Slate: The Lawless Ruling Against the Abortion Pill Has Already Prompted a Constitutional Crisis
CNN: This law from the 1870s could imperil abortion in blue states
Reckon: Texas federal judge halts mifepristone approval, throws future of medication abortion into chaos
