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Are Republicans Trying To Be As Unpopular Nationally As Possible?

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | April 10, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | April 10, 2023 |


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We live in a country where the same people who have no problem with a man paying hush money to a porn star he slept with while his wife was pregnant do not think it’s OK to take an FDA-approved pill to end a pregnancy within the first ten weeks. A right-wing extremist masquerading as a Texas district court judge ruled on Friday to roll back FDA approval of the abortion pill, mifepristone. The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk — a member of the Federalist Society who once submitted a brief to the Supreme Court arguing that pharmacies should not be required to carry contraceptives — echoed anti-abortion rhetoric.

I do not think that the FDA will abide by the ruling, and a ruling from a judge in Washington contradicted the Texas ruling. The issue will likely go to the Supreme Court, which will have to determine whether a state can overrule the FDA. If the ruling survives, the country’s medical system is in more trouble than it already is, because it would mean that courts could remove a drug from the market over the objection of the FDA. This is about more than abortion; this is about stripping power from the FDA. As President Biden said on Friday, “If this ruling were to stand, then there will be virtually no prescription, approved by the F.D.A., that would be safe from these kinds of political, ideological attacks.”

He’s not wrong, and that means that birth control pills themselves could be on the chopping block. How unpopular are activist, right-wing federal judges willing to be in their rulings? Right now, they’re going full Handmaid’s Tale. It took Republicans 50 years to overturn Roe v. Wade. They won. How they are handling that victory, however, may neuter the Republican party nationally for the next 50 years.

In Texas, for instance, Republicans in the state legislature are threatening to defund the FDA if Biden does not abide by the Texas ruling. That is insane. We cannot have courts defining drug approval policy on a state-by-state basis. Meanwhile, Democrats wasted no time this morning introducing a symbolic bill in the House to affirm the power of the FDA.

If this ruling comes to define the GOP in 2024, they’re in trouble. They won’t win a single purple state. After all, the very red state of Kansas voted to keep abortion legal, and I suspect that efforts are underway to put abortion on the ballots in some of the states where the governors have restricted or banned it. That is why the response from most Republicans is muted. On the other hand, one South Carolina Republican anti-abortion Congresswoman agrees that the FDA should ignore the Texas ruling, noting that “this is an issue that Republicans have been largely on the wrong side of we have over the last nine months, not shown compassion towards women.”