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Trump's AG pick is letting a a 111-year-old corpse dictate your rights

Thom HartmannAugust 06, 2026

Todd Blanche is campaigning to become our real, confirmed Attorney General, presumably so he can better help Donald Trump, his corrupt family, and the 13 billionaires in his cabinet make off with as much of our money as they can.

Most recently, his campaign took him to the rightwing “religious” group Intercessors for America. When he was asked about progress in totally ending legal abortion in America, or at least Red State America, he told them:

“We don’t have complete victory yet, but we will have victory, and victory will be soon, and and it will be permanent.”

He added, later in the call:

“If states have said, ‘We are going to protect the unborn and we’re going to protect every life from the moment of conception,’ we’re putting practices and policies in place so that other states and other organizations can’t attack that. They can’t do things like they’re doing with mailing in mail-order drugs.”

So, how’s he going to pull this off? His sworn testimony before Congress may offer us a glimpse into the plan.

Ted Cruz asked him:

“18 USC 24 Section 1461, the Comstock Act, provides that every article or thing designed or adapted or intended for producing abortion is declared to be non-mailable. I have to admit that statutory text to me looks quite straightforward. It is not subtle. It is not difficult. It is straightforward. …

“[W]ill you commit that the Department will carefully evaluate every lawful action available to ensure the faithful enforcement of the Comstock Act and other Federal pro-life acts?”

Blanche answered: “Yes.”

How does he plan to “protect every life from the moment of conception”? Apparently, with the Comstock Act. And he may well have the backing of the six Republicans on the Supreme Court as their next step after their Dobbs decision.

Back during oral arguments before the Supreme Court in March of 2024, the Comstock Act was invoked repeatedly by Sam Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Erin Hawley, the wife of Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who was the lawyer arguing before the Court that the abortion drug, Mifepristone, should be banned nationwide.

Justice Sam Alito said:

“This [Comstock Act] is a prominent provision. It’s not some obscure subsection of a complicated, obscure law. Everybody in this field knew about it.”

Erin Hawley was emphatic:

“We don’t think that there’s any case of this court that empowers FDA to ignore other federal law. The Comstock Act says that drugs should not be mailed … either through the mail or through common carriers.”

And Clarence Thomas laid out the possibility of future litigation when he essentially threatened the lawyer for Danco Laboratories, the manufacturer of Mifepristone:

“How do you respond to an argument that mailing your product and advertising it would violate the Comstock Act?” He went on to note that the law “is fairly broad, and it specifically covers drugs such as yours.”

In other words, they want the Act enforced today.

So, what the heck is the Comstock Act and why are Republicans trying to revive it before the Supreme Court and in threatening letters to pharmacy chains?

You’ve probably never heard of Anthony Comstock, a Civil War Union soldier and New York Postmaster, who died in 1915. You need to learn about him and his legacy, however, as his long fingers are about to reach up out of the grave and wrap themselves around the necks of every American woman of childbearing years.

Anthony Comstock was a mama’s boy who hated sex. His mother died when he was 10 years old and the shock apparently never left him; women who didn’t live up to her ideal were his open and declared enemies, as were pornography, masturbation, and abortion. He was so ignorant of sex and reproduction that he believed a visible human-like fetus developed “within seconds” of sexual intercourse.

Comstock spent decades scouring the country collecting hard-core pornography, which he enthusiastically shared with men in Congress, and harassing “loose women.” For example, when he visited a belly-dancing show (then a new craze) in Chicago at the Cairo Theatre during the World’s Fair of 1893, he demanded the show be shut down.

As Amy Sohn, who wrote a brilliant Comstock biography titled The Man Who Hated Women, noted:

“Despite national controversy and Comstock’s intervention, ultimately the only alteration made to the fair’s belly dancing was costuming: the dancers swapped their gauze blouses for thin woolen undershirts. The vice hunter had lost in Chicago. But he would not forget the dancers, and would have four of them arrested and fined when they came to New York that winter. New York, after all, was Comstockland.”

Comstock lobbied for and shepherded through Congress a law passed on March 3, 1873 titled “An Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, obscene Literature and Articles of immoral Use.” Today we refer to it as the Comstock Act.

It’s language with regard to abortion is not at all ambiguous:

“Every obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance … designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use; and

“Every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose; and

“Every written or printed card, letter, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any kind giving information, directly or indirectly, where, or how, or from whom, or by what means any of such mentioned matters, articles, or things may be obtained or made, or where or by whom any act or operation of any kind for the procuring or producing of abortion will be done or performed, or how or by what means abortion may be produced, whether sealed or unsealed; and

“Every paper, writing, advertisement, or representation that any article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing may, or can, be used or applied for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose; and

“Every description calculated to induce or incite a person to so use or apply any such article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing—

“Is declared to be nonmailable matter and shall not be conveyed in the mails or delivered from any post office or by any letter carrier.” (emphasis mine)

The penalty is also not ambiguous. Persons mailing information about abortion, or drugs or devices to produce an abortion:

“[S]hall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both, for the first such offense, and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both, for each such offense thereafter.” (emphasis mine)

The Biden administration argued that the Comstock Act of 1873 was set aside almost a century ago.

And, indeed, in 1930, the Appeals Court for the Second Circuit ruled in Youngs Rubber Corp. v. C.I. Lee & Co that the law couldn’t apply to things sent through the mail that are legal, even if they were illegal at the time of the passage of the Comstock Act. (The case involved condoms manufactured by Youngs Rubber Company.)

“Such a construction,” the Court wrote, “would prevent mailing to or by a physician of any drug or mechanical device ‘adapted’ for contraceptive or abortifacient uses, although the physician desired to use or to prescribe it for proper medical purposes.”

The law has been amended by Congress four times (in 1955, 1958, 1971, and 1994), but the language above about abortion was never struck because legislators figured the 1930 appeals court’s ruling rendered it nugatory.

But don’t tell that to Trump’s appointee, Texas District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Amarillo, who ruled in 2023 that Mifepristone was to be banned nationwide: he based a large part of his decision on the plain language of the Comstock Act.

Republican members of Congress agree, and want the Comstock Act enforced nationwide now. They think they don’t even need a ruling from the Supreme Court: they just need Todd Blanche to “enforce the law already on the books.”

In a letter sent to CVS (among other pharmacy chains), Mississippi Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and eight other Republican senators (Lankford, Daines, Braun, Rubio, Marshall, Risch, Crapo and Blackburn) wrote that the Biden interpretation (and that of Congress in 1955, 1958, 1971, and 1994) is wrong.

They explicitly asserted that the Comstock Act is still in effect and they want it enforced:

“We write to express our support and agreement with 21 [Republican] State Attorneys General,” they wrote “who have reminded you that Federal law in 18 U.S.C. 1461-1462 [the Comstock Act] criminalizes nationwide using the mail, or interstate shipment by any express company or common carrier, to send or receive any drug that is ‘designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.’”

The 1930 court ruling that lawmakers and judges had, for over 90 years, believed only applied the Comstock Act to items that were illegal (like child porn), Senator Hide-Smith wrote:

“[D]oes not protect CVS or any other individual or entity from being prosecuted within the five-year statute of limitations for the illegal mailing or interstate shipment of abortion drugs … even for conduct that occurs today.”

Keep in mind, under the plain language of the Comstock Act this could also apply to birth control pills, IUDs, and other things used to prevent pregnancy. And, of course, pornography and “masturbation devices” like vibrators.

The lawyer for Republicans defending Kacsmaryk’s ruling, Erin Hawley, went so far as to assert before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that even physicians and pharmacies shouldn’t be able to receive Mifepristone or other drugs that could produce an abortion via the mail, FedEx, or UPS:

“What the Comstock law says is that it is improper to mail things that induce or cause abortions, which is precisely the action the FDA took in 2021 when it permitted the mailing of abortion drugs.”

If Hawley’s interpretation is enforced by Todd Blanche once he’s securely settled into his office with a vote by Republicans in the Senate, all abortions in the United States could be ended when drugs and suction and surgical devices designed specifically for the procedure can no longer be shipped to hospitals, clinics, or physicians’ offices.

This is no idle threat.

As Washington Post reporter Dan Diamond wrote for his Substack newsletter, anti-abortion activist Mark Lee Dickson, who’s helped several cities around the country put into law local versions of the Comstock Act, told him:

“If a future president were to enforce these federal statutes, then they could shut down every abortion facility in America.”

This is the specific goal of these mostly “Christian” religious fanatics: to completely outlaw all abortion and radically restrict access to birth control. And having Blanche start enforcing the law that’s already on the books, provoking a battle heading for the Supreme Court, is all it would take.

Such a case would, based on Blanche’s sworn testimony to the Senate, have Republicans, Clarence Thomas, and Sam Alito gleefully rubbing their hands in anticipation.

So, if you’re concerned about the future of abortion rights in America, it might be a good time to call your Senators — particularly if either is a Republican — and let them know your thoughts on Blanche’s nomination that’ll probably get a vote in the next two days.

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AN 5 26 VID]

A recent dissent from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has prompted two legal analysts to question just "how far gone" the infamous conservative is.

Last week when the Supreme Court temporarily upheld telehealth access to Mifepristone, a frequently used drug that can expel pregnancies and miscarriages.

Thomas wrote in his own dissent, disagreeing with the majority of the court, claiming that the 1873 Comstock Act blocks the mail delivery and telehealth prescriptions for the drug. The law, however, applied to "obscene" materials and was used to stop the mailing of adult photos, magazines and other items.

“I write separately to note that, as Louisiana argued below, it is a criminal offense to ship Mifepristone for use in abortions,” said Thomas. “The Comstock Act bans using ‘the mails’ to ship any ‘drug ... for producing abortion.’"

Those pharmaceutical companies, Thomas claimed, "cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes."

He said that they should be "thrown in prison."

"Applicants, which are the makers of these drugs, are not entitled to a stay of an adverse court order based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise. They cannot in any legally relevant sense be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes," Thomas continued.

Slate legal reporter Mark Joseph Stern spoke with "Balls and Strikes" deputy editor Madiba Dennie, who called the Thomas opinion "outrageous."

Stern wondered what Dennie made of Thomas "throwing down" and "making the Comstock act great again."

She keyed in on the claim that the companies are part of some "criminal enterprise" as if they were "some guy on the corner selling heroin."

"I'm just like, 'Okay, buddy.' Like it's like somebody's been watching too much crime TV," she quipped.

Dennie went on to say it was "really egregious and just really trying to legitimize what was once a fringe theory that the Comstock Act does apply here, that it is valid, that it's still good law and should be used to prosecute all so many people."

"It's truly something absurd. I think it just shows how far gone Clarence Thomas is," she continued. "The language is on another level."

Stern explained that the language comes from the "crazy far-right anti-abortion advocates."

"They have been saying for years that this is a criminal network and a criminal conspiracy, and Thomas is just like, 'Absolutely. I'm just going to copy-paste that stuff into the U.S. reports, right?'" Stern argued.

Dennie agreed, "I think you have seen this sort of trend for Thomas for a while. Like he always describes abortion as this really nefarious, like racist eugenics-like operation happening across the country. And yeah, he really sees the opportunity to sort of put that put that into into his dissent here and mix in some criminality for good measure."

Stern clarified that she wasn't being hyperbolic, that Thomas did describe it as a racist eugenics program in a previous opinion.

"So, this guy is not pretending to be a neutral judge in these cases. He is like, 'We must outlaw abortion and imprison everyone who participates in it, including quite possibly patients,'" Stern said.

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HUFFPO 5 26

Supreme Court Restores Access To Abortion Pill Mifepristone | HuffPost Latest News

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huh? mma

Right-wing pundits are pressuring Trump to satisfy MAHA by restricting the abortion pill | Media Matters for America

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07/09/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Andrew Prokop @ Vox: The right’s meltdown over Jeffrey Epstein, explained

Trump officials say there’s no deeper Epstein conspiracy they can reveal. The right has reacted with fury.

Nikki McCann Ramirez @ Rolling Stone: Yes, Right-Wingers Are Pushing Conspiracies About the Texas Flood

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has yet to encounter a national tragedy that she won't spread conspiracies about.

Media Matters: Charlie Kirk on Texas flooding: “What you are not being told by the media anywhere is that the death toll likely would not have been as high if it wasn't for DEI”

"It's not just incompetence. This is DEI working to undermine meritocratic institutions, and more people likely died than otherwise would have because of DEI."

Jennifer Bendery @ HuffPost: GOP Rep. Weirdly Lies About Helping His State Survive The Medicaid Cuts He Voted For

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) insists he helped get $1 billion for hospitals in his state hit by Trump’s tax bill. Except his governor and state legislature did that.

Cameron Oakes @ Rewire News Group: Anti-Choice Groups Seek Stricter Rules on Abortion Medication Mifepristone

A July 8 letter asks HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to allow its use only up to seven weeks of pregnancy and in-person, among other changes. The majority of U.S. abortions involve mifepristone.

Art Jipson @ The Conversation: What is the ‘Seven Mountains Mandate’ and how is it linked to political extremism in the US?

Vance Boelter, who allegedly shot Melissa Hortman, a Democratic Minnesota state representative, and her husband, Mark Hortman, on June 14, 2025, studied at Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas. The group is a Bible school linked to the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR.

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mma

Right-wing media and anti-abortion groups are using a “seriously flawed” study on medication abortion to claim it’s not safe

In reality, mifepristone is a “safe and effective method of terminating pregnancies in the early stages”

Special ProgramsAbortion Rights & Reproductive Health

Written by Chloe Simon

:{Published 05/08/25 mma

A recent study released by the conservative think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center claimed that “one in ten” patients using the mifepristone abortion pill experiences a “serious adverse event.” Doctors and women’s health care experts criticized the report, arguing that the study is based on faulty methodology and is “highly questionable.”

Despite criticism from the medical and health care field, anti-abortion groups and right-wing media have glommed onto the study’s findings to back up their claim that medication abortion is “poison” and “dangerous,” insisting that the Food and Drug Administration should “revoke” approval for or “investigate” the mifepristone abortion pill.

The report claiming “serious adverse effects” from mifepristone has been criticized by medical professionals and health experts}:

- On April 28, the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center published an independent study titled “The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event.”The study claimed that “10.93 percent of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days following a mifepristone abortion.” It also asserted that “the real-world rate of serious adverse events following mifepristone abortions is at least 22 times as high as the summary figure of ‘less than 0.5 percent’ in clinical trials reported on the drug label.” Ethics and Public Policy Center, [4/28/25]

- Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote to the Food and Drug Administration that the study shows “the safety risks of the chemical abortion drug, mifepristone, are far greater than the FDA currently acknowledges.”Hawley continued, “The time to act is now. It is time to revisit and restore the FDA’s longstanding safety measures governing mifepristone.” Hawley.Senate.gov, [4/28/25]

- Hawley also wrote an op-ed for The Federalist arguing that the study revealed “astounding, jaw-dropping numbers, and they have been largely hidden from the public.” He added: “The rate of serious health events revealed by the EPPC study is some 22 times greater than the numbers reported on the FDA-approved drug label.” The Federalist, [5/5/25]

- Anti-abortion groups have launched an effort reportedly named “Rolling Thunder” that aims to use the EPPC data study to “convince the FDA, Congress and courts to crack down on their [abortion pills] use.” According to Politico, anti-abortion activists are “counting on” the EPPC’s mifepristone study to “light a fire under those in power.” On a Zoom call that included the EPPC among other anti-abortion groups, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s President Marjorie Dannenfelser said, “Right away it is very clear that the release of this data … has gotten attention at the highest levels in the administration and on Capitol Hill.” Politico, [5/7/25]

- Substack author Jessica Valenti argued that the data offered in EPPC’s report “sounds terrifying” until “you actually look at what the so-called researchers … are calling a ‘serious adverse event.’”Valenti wrote, “Out of the 94,605 patients they say were seriously harmed by abortion pills, 40,960 simply visited an emergency room. Not treated at the emergency room, but visited. Tellingly, while the EPPC claims they ‘followed the official FDA definition of a “serious adverse event,” the FDA does not define an ER visit alone as one. So right off the bat, they’re full of shit.” Substack, [4/28/25]

- Reason magazine senior editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown noted that EPPC’s methods were “highly questionable.”Nolan wrote that “there's a clear pattern in the study, in which the very specific or clearly dire categories of adverse events occurred in a relatively small number of patients, while the categories that make up the bulk of adverse events flagged are vaguely defined and may represent minor or even benign situations.” She also pointed out that the “fact that so much of this study was worded so vaguely should give everyone pause.” Reason, [5/5/25]

- Agence France-Presse’s fact-checking department wrote that experts say the study’s findings are based on “faulty methodology.”The fact check explained: “American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and women's health experts told AFP the findings are based on faulty methodology and do not supplant years of studies indicating the medication is safe when used as prescribed.” ACOG President Stella Dantas said the study is “seriously flawed” and “manipulates data to drive a myth that medication abortion isn't safe.” University of California-San Francisco associate professor Lauren Ralph also argued that “research has consistently found that the rate of serious adverse events is 0.3 to 0.5 percent -- far lower than the figures pushed by EPPC.” AFP Fact Check, [5/5/25]

## Abortion pills are overwhelmingly safe, yet access is under threat at the national and state levels

- The abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol are incredibly safe and effective forms of medication. A CNN data analysis showed that abortion medication is “safer than penicillin and Viagra,” as both medications “have higher death rates than mifepristone and misoprostol.” Salon also noted that medication abortion “has a mortality rate of .0003%, which is 1 in every 377,000 cases. (Out of 377,000 women who give birth, in contrast, 83 will die.)” A National Institutes of Health study said medication abortion “is a safe and effective method of terminating pregnancies in the early stages” and in the case of “pregnancies that are 49 days or less, the success rates range from 92% to 98%.” CNN, [6/13/24; Salon, 9/19/24; National Institutes of Health, 10/3/23]

- Medication abortion is under threat on a national and state-level basis. The Guttmacher Institute reported in February that at least six states are considering bills reclassifying abortion pills as “controlled substances” following Louisiana’s reclassification of the pills, while other states are “seeking to subvert environmental laws to regulate medication abortion.” Anti-abortion groups have also pushed for the federal government to use the Comstock Act, which Guttmacher describes as “antiquated federal legislation from the 1800s that they argue makes it unlawful to send medication abortion in the mail.” Guttmacher Institute, [2/25/25]

## Anti-abortion organizations are using the EPPC study to argue that abortion pills are “poison” and urge the FDA to investigate mifepristone

- Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life wrote that EPPC’s “alarming new report” provides “fresh evidence of the significant dangers of abortion drugs, which the Biden administration recklessly ignored.”The organization’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, also urged ”the FDA under new leadership to take a fresh, hard look at the data and reinstate strong safeguards for women and girls." Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life, [4/28/25]

- Conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom wrote: “1 in 10 patients suffered serious adverse events from the FDA-approved abortion pill, mifepristone. How much longer will this be ignored?”It also referred to the contents of the study as “shocking.” Twitter/X, [4/28/25; Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 5/6/25]

- Anti-abortion group PRI: People First posted that the EPPC “has exposed the true dangers of the abortion drug mifepristone.”Twitter/X, [5/3/25]

- In response to the report, anti-abortion law firm Americans United for Life released a “policy guide to aid enforcing chemical abortion laws and regulations.” The group also described the report as a “new groundbreaking study,” saying it “confirmed what many in the pro-life movement have been warning about - that abortion pills HARM women at a rate that we now know is FAR MORE DANGEROUS than what the FDA claimed.” Americans United for Life, [5/1/25; Twitter/X, 4/29/25; Library of Congress, accessed 5/6/25]

- Americans United for Life’s Steven H. Aden called the report “just the beginning of an earthquake started by EPPC.”Aden claimed it will “upend the foundation of misinformation and half-truths the abortion industry’s been standing on since chemical abortion was approved 25 years ago!” Twitter/X, [4/28/25]

- Anti-abortion organization Live Action News wrote that a “new study reveals nearly 11% of women suffer ‘serious adverse events’ after taking the abortion pill, including: ➡️ Sepsis ➡️ Infection ➡️ Hemorrhaging.”The outlet also claimed that “this makes Mifepristone 22x more dangerous than the FDA warning label claims” and that the “abortion industry will try to bury this story because the abortion pill is big business.” Twitter/X, [5/3/25, 4/30/25]

- Live Action President Lila Rose penned an op-ed for The Daily Caller titled “The Abortion Pill Is Poison, Not Medicine,” in which she claimed the EPPC study proved mifepristone is “gravely harming the women it claims to help.”Rose went on to allege that “the abortion pill is not safe. It never has been.” The Daily Caller, [5/2/25]

- Christian nonprofit Family Research Council called the study “comprehensive” and urged the FDA “to protect women and unborn children — investigate mifepristone and repeal the drug's approval.”Twitter/X, [4/28/25; Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 5/6/25]

## Right-wing media also jumped on the study, claiming that it proves “women have been sold a lie” on the safety of medication abortion

- Newsmax host Carl Higbie interviewed American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Dr. Donna Harris about the report, and he called its allegation that “11% of people are going to the hospital” from using medication abortion “an insane statistic.”Harris said “This shouldn't be surprising because the FDA has taken away almost all of the safety precautions that were in place when the drug was first approved, and that was done in 2016.” Harris also claimed that patients receiving medication abortion are “not being told what the dangers are. They're just being given these pills.” Newsmax, *Carl Higbie Frontline*, [5/2/25]

- One America News host Riley Lewis claimed the EPPC report shows that the consequences of medication abortion affect “tens of thousands of women all across the country, all over the U.S.,” adding that “reports of these events seem to be rising each and every year, without much consternation from the legacy media.”Guest Doug Truax, whose organization Foundation for Restoration of America commissioned the EPPC study, also blamed Democrats for being “hell-bent on increasing abortion all over the country” and creating “a situation where we have thousands and thousands of women who are being harmed by this and didn't know it going in.” OAN, *The Real Story with Riley Lewis,* [4/29/25; The Daily Wire, 4/29/25]

- OnFox & Friends Weekend, co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy claimed that the report showed an “over 500% increase in emergency room visits” and that “under Obama and Biden, they made it so women don't even have to see a doctor before or after taking this, which is very dangerous.”Charles Camosy, a bioethicist and adviser for the anti-abortion organization Equal Rights Institute, also complained that the report “hasn't got as much coverage as many of us would have hoped.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends Weekend*, [5/4/25; Equal Rights Institute, accessed 5/6/25]

- Fox News reporter Alexandria Hoff: “According to this research, the frequency of adverse side effects is about 22 times higher than what is currently recognized by the FDA.” Hoff also added that while “the study on mifepristone was conducted by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, which is a conservative, faith-forward think tank,” the “scale of this research speaks for itself.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [4/28/25]

- The Washington Examiner titled an article on the study “Severe abortion pill complications 22 times higher than FDA discloses.” The piece also referred to the study as “one of the largest real-world studies on mifepristone to date.” The Washington Examiner, [4/28/25]

- In discussing the EPPC study, right-wing podcaster Laura Loomer posted that “women have been sold a lie that the ‘abortion pill’ is painless and safe.” Loomer also claimed that “many gynecologists and women’s health clinics advertise that they prescribe these abortion pills like candy.” Twitter/X, [4/28/25]

- Just the News published a piece titled “New abortion pill complication research challenges FDA commissioner's disinterest in restrictions.”The piece went on to criticize FDA Commissioner Marty Makary for speaking too soon “when he told the Semafor World Economy Summit last week he has ‘no plans’ to restrict pregnancy-ending mifepristone, which must be followed by misoprostol to expel the aborted fetus, in light of new research on severe adverse events following chemical abortion.” Just the News, [4/29/25]

- BlazeTV’s Liz Wheeler posted: “FDA claims abortion pill is ‘safe.’ FALSE. REAL data show 22x higher danger than FDA says.” Wheeler further asserted that the “FDA must revoke approval.” Twitter/X, [4/28/25]

mma

### Anti-abortion figures attack ProPublica stories about two women who died seeking care for their miscarriages under Texas’ abortion bans

11/05/24 11:37 AM EST

### How Fox News has been misinforming its viewers about abortion

11/04/24 1:34 PM EST

### Inside Project 2025's attack on reproductive rights: Mifepristone and alternative abortion pills

06/24/24

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an 5 25

On May 7, President Donald Trump nominated 37-year-old Casey Means — an ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and supporter of his Make American Health Again (MAHA) movement — for U.S. surgeon general. Means is known for her new age-like views and shares some of his more controversial opinions, including being a promoter of raw milk.

Neither Means nor RFK Jr. are known for having a longtime association with far-right evangelical Christian fundamentalism. Kennedy was a Democrat until 2023, and Means' father Grady Means was an assistant to the late Nelson Rockefeller — who epitomized the moderate northeastern Rockefeller wing of the GOP during his years as governor or New York State and later, vice president under President Gerald Ford.

But Salon's Amanda Marcotte, in an article published on May 19, explains why RFK Jr. and Casey Means have become useful to the evangelical Christian Right agenda.

"At first blush," Marcotte explains, "Casey Means seems like the last person Christian conservatives would want as the surgeon general. Donald Trump's new pick for the nation's top doctor, though she does not have a medical license, favors the occult-speak popular in the 'wellness' influencer world where she makes her money. As Kiera Butler and Anna Merlan at Mother Jones documented, Means veers 'in a more new age direction' in her 'medical' writing."

IFrame Content

But Casey Means, Marcotte emphasizes, "is aligned with" the Christian Right "against an enemy they hate far more than Satan: feminists."

"Along with her shrines-and-moons talk, Means also wrote that she had shed 'my identity as a feminist,' giving up on wanting 'equality in a relationship' to instead embrace 'a completely different and greater power: the divine feminine," Marcotte observes. "It's woo-woo, but ultimately no different than the message promoted by conservative Christians: that a woman's role is as a man's helpmeet, not his equal."

Means and RFK Jr., according to Marcotte, have become unlikely but useful allies of the Christian Right and Trump's MAGA movement. And the Salon journalist points out that the Christian Right has been "getting witchier" in recent years because of "the rise of charismatic Christianity."

"Casey and her brother, Calley Means, are tight with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy, which is why she got the surgeon general nod and her brother got a position as a 'special government employee' assisting Kennedy," Marcotte observes. "Kennedy has exploited the false perception that he's a liberal Democrat to bamboozle some people into thinking far-right health policies, such as slashing Medicaid, are 'moderate' positions. Like the Means siblings, he's also using his appeal to people outside the Religious Right as a way to launder Christian Right views."

Marcotte continues, "Last week, Kennedy ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to 'review' the legality of Mifepristone, a drug used to abort pregnancies. He said this was necessary due to 'new data,' which is actually a non-reviewed 'study' by a Christian Right organization falsely claiming abortion pills are dangerous — a 'study' that was immediately debunked by experts. Kennedy has a long history of embracing fake science while ignoring real science, but this is his first foray into doing it to cape for a cause that's primarily, if not exclusively, associated with the Religious Right."

*Amanda Marcotte's full article for Salon is available at this link.

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alternet

It's not just social media that's giving violent white supremacists a pass

Thom Hartmann January 11, 2025

— The fossil fuel industry is apparently paying off Republicans — in a practice legalized by Republicans on the Supreme Court — to make sure Congress never passes legislation to hold them accountable for all the death and destruction they’ve caused by lying about climate change for the past 50 years. }:

Here, for example, are the biggest recipients of their largesse, according to OpenSecrets:

Romney, Mitt (R-UT) $8,291,262; Cornyn, John (R-TX) $4,678,062; Cruz, Ted (R-TX) $4,138,421; McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) $2,852,107; McCarthy, Kevin (R-CA) $2,581,832; Hutchison, Kay Bailey (R-TX) $2,332,021; Inhofe, James M (R-OK) $2,320,139; Pearce, Steve (R-NM) $2,236,714; Barton, Joe (R-TX) $2,211,987; Brady, Kevin (R-TX) $2,087,396; Scalise, Steve (R-LA) $1,847,013; Murkowski, Lisa (R-AK) $1,792,602.

If you haven’t yet noticed the trend, just check out the party affiliation of each…}:

— Convicted Felon Trump now has the “Scarlet F”: Our first felon President. There was a time that many of us remember when America — for all our faults, history, and stupid international meddling — was seen around the world as a beacon of morality and the staunchest defender of democratic values. Now, we’re the laughingstock — or the terror — of the developed world, since a grifting adjudicated sexual abuser, Putin lackey, and chronic liar is about to become president again. Alexander Hamilton warned us, but our media was far too busy fluffing Trump’s ego and sanewashing his BS to remind us that our first Secretary of the Treasury and the main author of the Federalist Papers wrote, in 1792:

“Those then, who resist a confirmation of public order, are the true Artificers of monarchy... When a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanour—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day

It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’” (Emphasis added)}:

And “directing the whirlwind” of racial hate, fear, and bigotry — as I regularly point out here on Hartmann Report— is exactly what Trump thinks he can do to reverse the Civil Rights movement and the New Deal (I’m skeptical he can pull it off). The Founders — and FDR and LBJ — must be rolling in their graves…

— It's not just social media that's giving violent white supremacists a pass... Without telling us, so far as I can tell, Bloomberg is reporting that the FBI (and the DHS more generally) stopped seriously monitoring and infiltrating violent white supremacist groups two years ago, around the time they were being trashed for such investigations by sedition-, Putin-, and Trump-loving Republicans in the House. The pressure seems to have worked.

“In 2022, DHS closed its Disinformation Governance Board, designed to offer best practices in countering viral conspiracies,” reports Bloomberg, adding that, “DHS also recently shuttered a unit that swept the internet for threatening materials in public posts, social media messages and online forums…”

Putin’s internet trolls, operating with huge budgets and the resources of the Russian state behind them, have since become a major force on the top social media sites, and both X and Meta are no longer suppressing their lies and attacks on democracy. Is it fossil fuel billionaires or social media billionaires who are the greatest threat to the future of world peace and democracy? Hard to choose…

— Greedy insurer interrupts cancer surgery in shocking mid-procedure call... Dr. Elisabeth Potter was in the middle of surgery on a breast cancer patient when a nurse ran into the operating theater to say that UnitedHealthcare was on the phone demanding to speak with her. She interrupted the surgery, leaving the unconscious patient whose chest was cut open on the table, to take the call. Here’s her story in her own words, as she told it on Instagram and later confirmed with Newsweek:

“So, I scrubbed out of my case and I called UnitedHealthcare, and the gentleman said he needed some information about her. Wanted to know her diagnosis and whether her inpatient stay should be justified. And I was like, ‘Do you understand this? She's asleep right now and she has breast cancer?’ And the gentleman said, ‘Actually, I don’t — that’s a different department that would know that information.’ And I was like, ‘Well, she does need to stay overnight tonight, and you have all the information with you because I got approval for this surgery, and I need to go back and be with my patient now.’ But, yeah, it’s out of control. Insurance is out of control. I have no other words.”

I can think of a few words: Parasitic, thief, malefic, heinous, flagitious, depraved, monstrous, mephistophelean, godless, loathsome, psychopathic, cruel, sadistic, maleficient, and vile for a start… Feel free to add your nouns or adjectives in the comments below.

— Indiana Republicans want to threaten rape victims with felonies if they try to get an abortion. Over at her brilliant “Abortion Every Day” substack newsletter, Jessica Valenti tells us that Indiana State Senator Mike Young has proposed legislation that would subject a woman in that state to 2.5 years in prison if she were to claim rape to get an abortion (about the only way to get an abortion in Indiana, unless your life is in danger) and then can’t subsequently prove to the satisfaction of the state’s GOP that she was actually raped.}:

The bill also makes it a crime to possess the abortion drug mifepristone, evoking the possibility of midnight raids with Indiana police kicking in the doors of women who Indiana Republicans think may have purchased the drug from an online telehealth physician. Freedumb!!}:

— Wondering why Trump is on a jeremiad against Panama? Some suggest his rant was timed to coincide with Jimmy Carter’s funeral to give rightwing media an excuse to trash Carter’s signing the Panama Canal Treaty that Nixon first started negotiating. But consider this story from Newsweek titled “Trump Organization Accused of Tax Evasion in Panama.” Just like the way he scammed New York State out of tax dollars (for which he was adjudicated and sentenced last year) his failed hotel in Panama hadn’t been paying its taxes either. Trump’s involved in a huge lawsuit down their right now, and some speculate that toppling the Panamanian government might work out well for his personal interests. Keep an eye on this one!

— James Carville suggests Jeff Bezos is trying to buy Trump via Melania. Amazon has just announced that they’re going to spend $40 million on a documentary about Melania Trump, who got her legal status in the US with a “genius visa” that’s typically reserved for the world’s top scientists and Nobel Prize winners (there are only around 3,000 issued every year). Carville, who was himself the subject of a recent Netflix documentary, implies that this number stinks of a payoff:

“This is something I’m going to claim some expertise in, the subject of documentaries because I’ve been the subject of two and I’ve been the subject of a recent one… You can produce a world class documentary for $2 million. I know it. You couldn’t spend $40 million on a documentary if you tried 10 times harder to do it, so where’s the money going? Well, we know where the money is going.”

Why? Well, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 17 state attorneys general are suing Amazon for allegedly maintaining a monopoly through anticompetitive practices, and Bezos apparently hates unions and might want help stopping them in his warehouses…

— Crazy Alert! Greenlanders really hate Trump, so Don Jr. had to hire homeless people to make it look like somebody was welcoming him. Danish Radio (which once loaned me a studio for two weeks to do my show: great people!) is reporting that after having Greenlanders give him the finger in the airport and post “Yankee go home” on Facebook, Don Jr. had to hire a few local “homeless and socially disadvantaged” people to pretend to be Trump supporters for his recent stunt visiting that country. As one local, Tom Amtof of the town of Nuuk, told DR News: “All they have to do is put on a cap and be in the Trump staff’s videos. They are being bribed, and it is deeply distasteful.” Yeah, distasteful. Again, there are other words…

NOW READ: Trump and his minions attempt to make America small, stupid and mean

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texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit accusing a New York doctor of prescribing abortion drugs to a Texas resident in violation of state law.

This lawsuit is the first attempt to test what happens when state abortion laws are at odds with each other. New York has a shield law that protects providers from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions, which has served as implicit permission for a network of doctors to mail abortion pills into states that have banned the procedure.

Texas has vowed to pursue these cases regardless of those laws, and legal experts are divided on where the courts may land on this issue, which involves extraterritoriality, interstate commerce and other thorny legal questions last meaningfully addressed before the Civil War.

In this case, Paxton accuses Dr. Margaret Carpenter of mailing pills from New York to a 20-year-old woman in Collin County. The woman allegedly took the medication when she was nine weeks pregnant. When she began experiencing severe bleeding, the lawsuit says, she asked the man who impregnated her to take her to the hospital. He had not been aware she was pregnant or seeking an abortion, according to the filing.

The lawsuit does not say whether the woman successfully terminated her pregnancy or experienced any long-term medical complications. Mifepristone and misoprostol, the medications Carpenter is accused of sending, are more than 95% effective if taken before 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Paxton is asking a Collin County court to block Carpenter from violating Texas law, and order her to pay $100,000 for every violation of the state’s near-total abortion ban. Texas’ near-total abortion ban comes with up to life in prison, fines of at least $100,000 and the loss of a provider’s Texas medical license.

Carpenter is not licensed to practice in Texas, according to the complaint. She is the founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, a national group that helps doctors in states with shield laws provide telemedicine consultations and abortion pills to patients in states that have banned abortions.

The group was founded after the overturn of Roe v. Wade by Carpenter, Dr. Linda Prine, and Julie Kay, a former ACLU lawyer who successfully argued the case that overturned Ireland’s abortion ban. They support doctors who want to become “shield providers” by advising them on licensure, data security, pharmacy contacts and legality.

Carpenter also works with AidAccess, an international medication abortion provider, and helped found Hey Jane, a telehealth abortion provider. Neither Carpenter nor Kay immediately responded to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/13/texas-paxton-abortion-pill-mail-lawsuit/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

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— Republican attorneys general go to court to demand more pregnant 15-year-olds. This story sounds too bizarre to be true, but Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Kansas Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach, and Idaho Republican Attorney General Raúl Labrador have filed a lawsuit in federal court — presumably aiming for an eventual hearing before the Supreme Court — claiming that their states are being harmed, population-wise, by the availability of abortion drugs that can be shipped into their states by mail.

They want shipping Mifepristone outlawed nationwide. The proof of the harm, they say, is that they are not seeing enough pregnant teenagers. The lawsuit is explicit (page 190): “Defendants’ efforts enabling the remote dispensing of abortion drugs has caused abortions for women in Plaintiff States and decreased births in Plaintiff States. This is a sovereign injury to the State in itself. … When data is examined in a way that reflects sensitivity to expected birth rates, these estimates strikingly ‘do not show evidence of an increase in births to teenagers aged 15-19,’ even in states with long driving distances despite the fact that ‘women aged 15-19 … are more responsive to driving distances to abortion facilities than older women.’”

They then claim that this “proof” that availability of mailed abortion pills are causing the drop in pregnancies among girls 15-19 years old is an “injury” to their states because it lowers their potential population. This is getting wild, but wait until the Supreme Court authorizes Red states to begin monitoring the menstrual periods of fertile girls and women; Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt has already introduced federal legislation requiring companies selling devices that track ovulation to report their results to state agencies or a federal database, including police agencies nationwide, so pregnancies can be caught and tracked. Republicans won’t be happy until every girl in America grows up the way Amy Coney Barrett did in her People of Praise Catholic cult where she was referred to as a “Handmaiden.”

— And now, to the delight of Republican lawmakers and police the US government has bought a tool that can track you by your cellphone to abortion clinics anywhere in the country. Locate X is a product from Babel Street which our government has been using since the Trump administration; it’s capable of tracking every cellphone in the country with remarkable location accuracy. The folks at 404 Media did a trial run of it focused on tracking people to and from abortion clinics, and the process was startlingly easy. When Ted Cruz, JD Vance, and the rest of the GOP forced-birth crowd again gain control of the federal government, get ready. They’re chomping at the bit…