'It was all a lie.' Only a four-letter word can stop anti-abortion extremists now.
Dale Butland
Opinion article in The Columbus Dispatch
Tue, April 11, 2023 at 7:46 AM CDT
When the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision less than a year ago, Republicans were quick to assert that the decision did not outlaw abortion but merely returned that issue to the states — and that those wishing to keep the procedure legal would be free to do so.
They denied contemplating a national ban — and dismissed predictions to the contrary as Democratic propaganda.
It was all a lie.
For anti-abortion extremists, reversing Roe was just the beginning.
Their end game was revealed on April 7 when a federal judge in Amarillo, Texas overturned the FDA’s 23-year-old approval of a pill known as mifepristone which, along with a companion drug prescribed in tandem, now accounts for over half of all U.S. abortions.
If the ruling stands, no woman anywhere in America will have access to the abortion pill.
Never mind that the judge has no medical or scientific training. Never mind that no court has ever ordered a drug outlawed over the FDA’s opposition.
Never mind recent polls that say over 70% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances.
And never mind that since Roe was overturned, the pro-choice position has won every place it’s been on the ballot, including bright red states like Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana.
To justify his ruling, Judge Matthew Kacsmarcyk found that the pill’s FDA approval was rushed, that its usage is unsafe, and that a ban will ensure “women and girls are protected from unnecessary harm.”
To call these findings preposterous vastly understates their absurdity.
The FDA took 54 months to approve mifepristone in 2000. For other drugs green-lit by the agency that year, the average length of the approval process was 15.6 months.
In the two decades since, mifepristone has been used by millions of women, been approved in more than 80 countries, is listed by the World Health Organization as an “essential medicine” and its efficacy has been extensively studied.
No drug is 100% safe.
But Mifepristone comes close, with a fatality rate of 0.0005%. That not only makes it safer than Tylenol, but four times safer than penicillin, ten times safer than Viagra, and 14 times safer than childbirth.
If “safety” is Kacsmaryck’s concern, will he be coming after penicillin next?
You can bet he won’t try to outlaw Viagra; even Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would put the brakes on that one.
So let’s cut the crap. Opposition to mifepristone isn’t about safety.
It’s about ending a woman’s right to choose.
It was hardly an accident that the organization bringing the case — the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, which has a Tennessee mailing address — chose to incorporate in Amarillo just two months after the Supreme Court struck down Roe.
Because Amarillo only has one federal judge, the Alliance knew filing there would guarantee a hearing by Kacsmaryck, a Trump-appointed right-wing zealot who opposes same sex marriage and LGBTQ rights, has criticized Roe in writing and, I’m embarrassed to say, graduated from my own alma mater, the hyper-conservative Abilene Christian University.
Forum shopping obviously paid off for the extremists.
But for the rest of us who believe that decisions on whether to begin a family and when to terminate a pregnancy should be made by women and actual medical professionals, not politicians masquerading as doctors and judges practicing medicine without a license, Kacsmaryck’s ideologically-driven ruling is a frontal assault on one of our most basic personal freedoms.
To which I believe the only effective response is a four-letter word: VOTE.
Just three days before the Amarillo ruling, a pro-choice candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court won a landslide election, primarily on the issue of choice.
We must now replicate that result in upcoming elections everywhere, in blue states and in red states from sea to shining sea.
Because if there is one thing I’ve learned after forty years in politics, it’s that nothing concentrates a politician’s mind like being thrown out of office.
And the surest way to lose our freedoms and our democracy is failing to stand up for them at the ballot box.
Dale Butland was Press Secretary and Ohio Chief of Staff to the late U.S. Senator John Glenn.
@suzianne saidHave you had any conversations with conservative women who may not agree with that? Obviously as a guy it would be weird for me to say it to her.
So let’s cut the crap. Opposition to mifepristone isn’t about safety.
It’s about ending a woman’s right to choose.
What points would you use for a conservative woman about abortion if you could talk face-to-face?
@vivify saidEven though it should be, this isn't just a women's issue.
Have you had any conversations with conservative women who may not agree with that? Obviously as a guy it would be weird for me to say it to her.
What points would you use for a conservative woman about abortion if you could talk face-to-face?
The reason it's not is, again, control.
@suzianne saidI will admit to not finding this an interesting subject after the fact, didnt read it, but I gotta say, what difference does it make since it was properly decided by SCOTUS. It's over, Suzianne, regardless the discussions.
'It was all a lie.' Only a four-letter word can stop anti-abortion extremists now.
Dale Butland
Opinion article in The Columbus Dispatch
Tue, April 11, 2023 at 7:46 AM CDT
When the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision less than a year ago, Republicans were quick to assert that the decision did not outlaw abortion but merely returned that issue to the sta ...[text shortened]... Dale Butland was Press Secretary and Ohio Chief of Staff to the late U.S. Senator John Glenn.
Y'all will beat a dead horse.
@vivify saidWho do you suppose is voting to protect family planning options in those red states. That’s why this is such a political albatross around the neck of a Republican Party that’s been hijacked by extreme evangelical storm troopers.
Have you had any conversations with conservative women who may not agree with that? Obviously as a guy it would be weird for me to say it to her.
What points would you use for a conservative woman about abortion if you could talk face-to-face?
I’m guessing the vast majority of Republican law makers are praying to mammon that the Supreme Court squashes this act of domestic terrorism.
Anti abortion extremism cannot be described as ‘conservative’ unless the U.S. has developed its own definition of the word.
@averagejoe1 saidYour right Joe you clearly did not read it, this hasn’t got anywhere near SCOTUS yet but if it does and they deem it constitutional the Republican Party might as well hang up their political hats and go home in terms of the White House, plus over time women will drive you out of state politics.
I will admit to not finding this an interesting subject after the fact, didnt read it, but I gotta say, what difference does it make since it was properly decided by SCOTUS. It's over, Suzianne, regardless the discussions.
Y'all will beat a dead horse.
&ab_channel=TheHumanistReport
Basically the case is made to just ignore the dumbass judge from Texas. It will probably end up in the lap of the Supreme Court where they will have to show their hypocrisy and go back on their previous ruling of "leave it up to the states".
@suzianne saidSue, you hate liars more than anyone on the forum. Did you see where Biden lied about not knowing the shady partners of Hunter?
'It was all a lie.' Only a four-letter word can stop anti-abortion extremists now.
Dale Butland
Opinion article in The Columbus Dispatch
Tue, April 11, 2023 at 7:46 AM CDT
When the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision less than a year ago, Republicans were quick to assert that the decision did not outlaw abortion but merely returned that issue to the sta ...[text shortened]... Dale Butland was Press Secretary and Ohio Chief of Staff to the late U.S. Senator John Glenn.
@averagejoe1 saidCan't you stay on topic for 5 seconds without dragging your Hunter Biden obsession out again?
Sue, you hate liars more than anyone on the forum. Did you see where Biden lied about not knowing the shady partners of Hunter?
@zahlanzi saidYes, the decision runs roughshod over other states’ rights. I expect the decision will either be struck down, or reduced in scope to the one state where that judge presides.
It's so funny to me that a random judge in a random state can overrule the FDA and just ban something. Nation wide .
Amerika is weird
@kevcvs57 saidI don't deny any of that. But my slant on it is that these women you speak of will........
Your right Joe you clearly did not read it, this hasn’t got anywhere near SCOTUS yet but if it does and they deem it constitutional the Republican Party might as well hang up their political hats and go home in terms of the White House, plus over time women will drive you out of state politics.
,,,elect a president on one issue, that of abortion.
What if he is a weak senile man like Biden, who cannot stand up to a Xi-dictator, who will rain hell down on her other babies and ruin the United States?
I hope you get my gist. This one issue is not a platform on which to elect someone to run the United States of America. Actually, I think you will not get my gist.
USA should let the law allow a abortion within 1 month of discovering pregnancy, and that would do it.
@averagejoe1 said“ USA should let the law allow an abortion within 1 month of discovering pregnancy, and that would do it.”
I don't deny any of that. But my slant on it is that these women you speak of will........
,,,elect a president on one issue, that of abortion.
What if he is a weak senile man like Biden, who cannot stand up to a Xi-dictator, who will rain hell down on her other babies and ruin the United States?
I hope you get my gist. This one issue is not a platform ...[text shortened]... A should let the law allow a abortion within 1 month of discovering pregnancy, and that would do it.
So what the vast majority of women were doing before the Republican SCOTUS struck down Roe v Wade then 🤷🏻♂️
This is about more than abortion rights Joe, ultra right wing Republican lawmakers are tripping over themselves to come with the most hateful ways they can think of to restrict the freedom of choice for anyone who does not fit into straight jacket of evangelical ideology in order to keep the scumbag base on side. All they can hope for that they win the primaries and keep their seats as minority republicans in congress, they have clearly given up in the White House with the most self absorbed candidate in the history of the US. Don’t you get Biden may show signs of being a bit befuddled at times but Trump is very very mentally ill.
@Suzianne
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/07/politics/read-texas-abortion-pill-mifepristone-ruling/index.html
“… a federal judge in Washington state said in a new ruling shortly after the Texas ruling that the FDA must keep medication abortion drugs available in more than a dozen Democratic-led states.“
This is far from over.