#Women are still being charged for #contraception even though federal #law dictates it should be free. The chair of the #Senate#health cmte wants a govt watchdog to investigate why.
Under the #ACA, health plans are required to provide #BirthControl to patients as a #preventive. Repeated probes have found that plans flout the law & #patients are asked to pay, Sen #BernieSanders said in a letter being sent Mon to the Govt #Accountability Office.
A nice hike yesterday 😁
But for the first time I had to explain to someone how "allemansrätt" or right of public access works.
They wanted to chase me out of their forrest because it was "private", but that's not how it works in most Nordic countries...
The vote on the #RightToContraceptionAct was 51-39, falling short of the 60 votes needed to defeat a #filibuster & move forward. Republicans said the bill is unnecessary as the use of #BirthControl is protected under #SCOTUS precedent as if [#SupremeCourt precedent means anything anymore].
#ClarenceThomas’s concurring opinion begins on page 117. On page 119 Thomas specifically states “in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process #precedents, including #Griswold, Lawrence, & Obergefell.”
#Republicans in ≥17 states have blocked #laws assuring the right to #BirthControl since 2022. Most recently, #Virginia Gov Glenn #Youngkin (R) vetoed a bill meant to ensure #access to #contraceptives, saying while he personally supports access, he was loath to “trample on the #religious freedoms of Virginians,” incl’g #medical providers [what about everyone else’s freedoms?] #Trump suggested that he was open to restricting access to #contraception.
#Medical societies say it’s wrong to characterize emergency #contraceptive pills, a #BirthControl method used w/in days of unprotected sex, & IUDs, which are long-acting & reversible, as causing #abortions bc NEITHER END AN EXISTING PREGNANCY.
“This is a fight for freedom, the fundamental freedom to make decisions about one’s own body & not have their government tell them what they’re supposed to do,” the VP said.
VP #KamalaHarris then pivoted to the meat of her argument to #Florida voters: that #Trump was to blame for the #AbortionBan that just went into effect in the state, as well as others like it nationwide.
“Across our nation, we witnessed a full on assault, state by state, on #ReproductiveFreedom, & understand who is to blame: former president Donald Trump did this,” Harris said.
“Donald #Trump hand picked 3 members of the #UnitedStates#SupremeCourt because he intended for them to overturn #Roe, & as he intended, they did.”
#KamalaHarris harkened back to her grilling, as a senator on the judiciary cmte, of 2 of Trump’s #SCOTUS nominees, saying it was clear after their confirmation that the days of nationwide #abortion#access were numbered:
How R.F.K. Jr. Got on the Michigan Ballot, With Only Two Votes
The independent candidate persuaded a tiny party to give him its line on the ballot in a key 2024 battleground state, sparing him a costly, arduous organizing effort.
For 22 years, Doug Dern, a bankruptcy lawyer with a small practice outside Detroit,
has almost single-handedly kept the 🔸Natural Law Party 🔸on Michigan’s ballot.
👉Each cycle, the party runs a handful of candidates in obscure state races to meet Michigan’s minimum polling requirements for minor parties.
“Keep that #ballot#access,” Mr. Dern, 62, said in an interview on Friday.
“Because someday, a candidate is going to come along who’s going to be perfect for it. Someday, the third parties are going to be hot.”
That day may have come.
In gaining access to the ballot in Michigan, a critical swing state in the 2024 election, Mr. #Kennedy has injected new uncertainty into what promises to be one of the most closely contested presidential races in history.
And 💥he did it without having to gather a single signature, 💥avoiding a costly and arduous organizing effort, not to mention the possibility of having to fight court challenges to those signatures.
The 2 rulings put the 2 states in the “most restrictive” category for #AbortionAccess & policies, acc/to the Guttmacher Inst, a research & policy org that advocates for #ReproductiveRights & tracks #abortion#access.
The rulings could lead to the closure of reproductive #health#clinics in the 2 states.
#Florida’s new restrictions would put the #Miami & #Tampa metro areas -w/a combined population of ~9M people- >500 miles from the nearest clinic in a state w/o a near-total or 6wk #AbortionBan.
#Iowa’s Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thurs in a case that could decide the future of #abortion in that state, the latest in a series of #legal battles that threaten abortion #access across the country during a historic #election year.
The decision established that minors at open-air sites were in #legal custody of the DHS & thus must receive #safe#shelter, even if they had not yet been formally processed.
“The ability to exercise discretion over, & make decisions affecting, a child’s #health & #welfare is indicative of maintaining #legal custody of the child, regardless of whether that decision is to provide or withhold care,” the 12-pg order read. “Juveniles, unlike adults, are always in some form of #custody.”
The headline should read Trump-enabler who voted for unqualified Supreme Court judges and against impeachment, says she won’t vote for Trump…until she inevitably does
#MarilynLands, a Dem who made #ReproductiveRights a centerpiece of her campaign in deeply #conservative#Alabama, won a special election to the Alabama Legislature.
Lands’ victory in the suburban district in the #DeepSouth state was celebrated by #Democrats who have attempted to portray the state #GOP as too extreme on #abortion & reproductive rights.
“Today, #Alabama women & families sent a clear message that will be heard in Montgomery & across the nation. Our legislature must repeal AL’s no-exceptions #AbortionBan, fully restore #access to #IVF, & protect the #right to #contraception,” #MarilynLands said.
#SupremeCourt#AbortionPill case
Tue’s oral argument is focused on whether to overrule the #FDA & reimpose restrictions on getting #abortion medication. <2 yrs after #SCOTUS overturned #RoeVWade, the issue of #ReproductiveRights is returning to the high court on Tues as the justices consider whether to limit access to a med used in >60% of US abortions.
The #Biden admin & the manufacturer of #mifepristone are seeking to reverse a lower-court ruling.
The #pharmaceutical industry warned that 2nd-guessing the #FDA will broadly disrupt the nation’s #drug-approval process & stymie private investment in #research.
The case could make it harder to get #MedicationAbortions even in states where #abortion is legal. Allowing #medication abortions to proceed w/o an in-person medical visit has increased #access, particularly for women in #rural areas & others who struggle to go to a clinic in person, allowing them to complete the process from home. #law
#SCOTUS could also further impede #abortion#access for those living in one of the >15 states w/a strict #AbortionBan in place. A few telemedicine clinics have started allowing US-based doctors to prescribe & mail pills into restricted states, relying on new “#ShieldLaws” passed in several blue states to protect them from prosecution. The largest of these clinics, Aid Access, now mails ~6k doses of #MedicationAbortion into antiabortion states every month, acc/to founder Rebecca Gomperts.
#Trump’s son-in-law said he was close to finalizing real estate projects in the two #Balkan nations, an example of the Trump family’s pursuit of deals abroad as the former president seeks the White House.
These first 2 projects both involve land now controlled by the govts, meaning a deal would have to be finalized w/ #ForeignGovernments.
A 3rd project, also in #Albania, would be built on the Zvërnec peninsula, a 1k-acre coastal area in the south….
#Kushner’s participation would be through his investment firm, #AffinityPartners, which has $2B in funding from #SaudiArabia’s Public Investment Fund, among other foreign investors.