On May 17, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (a federal appeals court) will begin oral arguments on a case that could ban or drastically reduce the use of mifepristone, a medication used for over half the abortions that take place in the U.S. In mid-April, the Supreme Court ruled that mifepristone would remain available while this case works its way through the courts but did not rule on the merits of the case. Mifepristone is safer than Tylenol but is under attack as part of the relentless and vicious fascist assault to outlaw abortion entirely, legally subordinating women to the status of breeders and incubators.
On April 7, the Trump-appointed Christian fascist Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, based in Amarillo, Texas, ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should remove its approval for mifepristone. In this upcoming hearing, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will decide on whether to uphold or reverse this ruling. Kacsmaryk's ruling represented a major leap in the theocratic assault on women's right to control their lives and futures.
Sunsara Taylor Interview with Mark Joseph Stern on the RNL - Revolution, Nothing Less! - Show
While the ruling itself has not been upheld up to this point, it is important to understand what this involves and what will be debated, including a number of dangerous and lawless decisions that could set a framework for a federal ban on all abortions, and represent a major leap in shredding the rule of law:
- According to Mark Joseph Stern of Slate, Kacsmaryk's ruling raised “the possibility that he will impose 'fetal personhood,' which holds that every state must ban abortion because it murders a human.” Again from Stern: “At one point, [Kacsmaryk] deemed fetuses to 'arguably' be 'people' who are killed by mifepristone, seeking to establish the 'fetal personhood' that has always been the end goal of the movement. For support, he cited a brief by anti-abortion advocate Robert P. George asserting that the Constitution compels every state to outlaw abortion.”
- Kacsmaryk's ruling is full of anti-scientific religious language, calling fetuses “unborn humans.” This language was repeated in the first ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
- Kacsmaryk's ruling resurrects something called the Comstock Act. This is a law from 1873 that's still on the books, but has been basically unenforced for over 50 years, to let the federal government censor what was sent through the mail. This included literature branded as "pornography" but also information about birth control and drugs used for the purpose of “causing unlawful abortion.” By resurrecting this theocratic law, and applying it to abortion in the present day, some legal scholars have argued that this could set the basis to outlaw anything—medication, medical supplies... anything a clinic needs for the purposes of providing an abortion.
- The lawsuit before Kacsmaryk has no legal or scientific basis. First of all, judges aren't supposed to have oversight of the FDA’s rigorous scientifically based approval process for medications. (Hundreds of pharmaceutical executives, doctors and scientists have spoken out in protest of this case.) When Kacsmaryk argues that mifepristone is harmful to women, he cites blog posts and unscientific “studies” by anti-abortion activists. For example, Kacsmaryk wrote that many women aren't informed that they may face torturous side effects before and after “expelling the aborted human.”
- There's more to say about the utter illegitimacy of this whole case, including that the organization that initiated this lawsuit, the “Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine,” incorporated in Amarillo in August 2022, just weeks after Roe v. Wade was overturned, for the sole purpose of having this case heard before this fascist federal judge.
Where all this will go is not yet determined—and it is likely that this case will, again, go before the fascist-packed Supreme Court. But what people do—and do not do—in this sharpening situation can make all the difference
From The Bob Avakian Interviews:
What Accounts For The Attack On Abortion And What Must Be Done
FETUSES ARE NOT BABIES! ABORTION IS NOT MURDER! WOMEN ARE NOT INCUBATORS!
FORCED MOTHERHOOD IS FEMALE ENSLAVEMENT!
ABORTION ON DEMAND AND WITHOUT APOLOGY!
BREAK THE CHAINS! UNLEASH THE FURY OF WOMEN AS A MIGHTY FORCE FOR REVOLUTION!