“Democrats are prioritizing other issues over abortion in the runup to the fall midterm elections, while Republicans are taking pains to avoid the topic altogether,” Politico reports.
“But another wave of state ballot initiatives to protect a right to abortion could force candidates on both sides to articulate their positions.”
“Planned Parenthood will likely be able to regain access to federal funds as of July 5, one year after Republicans were finally able to ban money from going to the organization,” NOTUS reports.
“Last year’s partisan budget bill marked the first time lawmakers succeeded in their longtime policy goal of barring Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds. The Senate parliamentarian allowed the ban to last one year, instead a proposed 10, meaning the provision will expire soon. Now, Republicans say they lack the votes to extend that ban further, a result of close margins in both chambers and election-year politics.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said in a new interview that she did not “regret” her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018 but was “disappointed” that he later helped overturn the constitutional right to an abortion, the New York Times reports.
Said Collins: “I do not regret that vote. I do disagree with Justice Kavanaugh’s vote.”
Georgia gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson (R) believes women should have to prove they were raped before being eligible for an abortion exception under the state’s six-week ban, according to leaked audio obtained by HuffPost.
Wall Street Journal: “The Food and Drug Administration has launched a safety study of the abortion pill, also known as mifepristone, a step that could pave the way for the Trump administration to restrict how it is distributed and used.”
“The study marks a victory for antiabortion groups and Republican members of Congress, who have demanded action from the administration to crack down on the pill’s use. In recent months, antiabortion allies had lost patience with assurances from administration officials that a study would be conducted.”
New York Times: “Four years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which established a national right to abortion in 1973, it remains widely available, and the number of abortions per year has actually increased slightly. Much of that is due to the availability of abortion pills. The Food and Drug Administration has so far not walked away from a decision made during the Biden administration to allow access to the abortion pill mifepristone through the mail.”
“But a lawsuit against the F.D.A. now threatens that access, and the Trump administration has remained strikingly silent about it, even as the case reached the Supreme Court this month.”
CBS News: “The Supreme Court on Thursday maintained mail access to the abortion pill mifepristone, setting aside for now a lower court order that blocked abortion providers from prescribing the widely used drug through telehealth and shipping it to patients.”
“The high court’s unsigned decision ensures that patients nationwide will continue to have broad access to mifepristone while litigation in a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s relaxed policy for obtaining the drug brought by the state of Louisiana moves forward.”
Washington Post: Supreme Court temporarily clears way for mail distribution of widely used abortion pill.
Washington Post: “Democrats, who retreated from their focus on abortion rights after losing the White House in 2024, see an opportunity to go back on the offensive after a federal court endangered access last week.”
“Abortion rights advocates are hoping to capitalize on the legal uncertainty, as they did when scoring a string of Democratic victories in the 2022 midterms shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”
“The Supreme Court on Monday restored broad access to the abortion pill mifepristone, blocking a ruling that had threatened to upend one of the main ways abortion is provided across the nation,” the AP reports.
“The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito temporarily allows women seeking abortions to obtain the pill at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor.”
“The antiabortion lobby expected to be more triumphant by now: A conservative Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and the self-styled ‘most pro-life president in history’ again occupies the Oval Office,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“But abortions are up in the years after the overturning of Roe, and the antiabortion lobby has a new locus for blame.”
New York Times: “A manufacturer of the abortion pill mifepristone asked the Supreme Court on Saturday to immediately restore full access to the medication, putting the contentious issue of abortion back before the justices in an election year.”
“The request came after a lower court on Friday temporarily restricted abortion providers nationwide from prescribing the pills by telemedicine and sending them to patients by mail. That process is one of the main ways women seeking abortions have obtained the medication in recent years.”
“A federal appeals court issued a ruling on Friday temporarily halting the ability of abortion providers to prescribe pills by telemedicine and send them to patients by mail, blocking what has become a major avenue for women seeking abortions in recent years,” the New York Times reports.
“The order comes in a case in which the state of Louisiana is suing the Food and Drug Administration, seeking to sharply curtail access to the abortion pill mifepristone.”
CNN: Appeals court blocks FDA rule that allows women to obtain abortion drugs by mail.
New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed that a New Jersey anti-abortion clinic should be able to challenge a subpoena issued by state officials seeking donor information.”
“In a unanimous decision written by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the justices cleared the way for First Choice Women’s Resource Centers to bring a First Amendment challenge in federal court as it tries to fight the subpoena.”
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) signed a bill into law on Monday banning abortion in the state after a “fetal heartbeat” has been detected, ABC News reports.
“All unaccompanied immigrant children who are pregnant, many by rape, are being moved to a single facility in Texas in order to avoid providing abortion services in a significant human rights violation,” The Guardian reports.
“The anti-abortion movement’s embrace of President Donald Trump paid them major dividends in his first term: The Supreme Court justices he appointed overturned Roe v. Wade, and state abortion bans swept the country,” Politico reports.
“But a year into his second term, with little movement on their top policy priorities and mounting frustration with Trump’s rhetoric on government funding of abortion, IVF, and other hot-button issues, some activists are questioning the alliance — and their own place within the GOP.”
Said Family Research Council president Tony Perkins: “This type of rhetoric runs the risk of moving this party from a majority party to a minority party. With elections being so close, you don’t want people being frustrated or disappointed. You want people motivated.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters that there’s “potentially a path forward” on Obamacare subsidy talks, but the Hyde amendment, which blocks federal money for abortions, remains “probably the most challenging part of this.”
Said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), in response to President Trump asking GOP lawmakers for flexibility: “I’m not flexible on the value of every child’s life.”
“Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming after the state Supreme Court struck down laws that include the country’s first explicit ban on abortion pills, ruling Tuesday that they violate the state constitution,” the AP reports.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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