A group of 259 congressional Democrats is urging a federal appeals court to decide in favor of abortion groups sending mail-order abortion pills throughout the U.S., sidestepping states’ pro-life laws.
The Democrats are attempting to sink Louisiana’s effort to restore an in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone. The July 22 friend-of-the-court brief asks the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to deny the state’s request to pause the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 2023 rule change that lifted regulations on the deadly drug. Louisiana’s request is only for that pause to be put in place while the state’s legal challenge proceeds.
The rule change was enacted under the Biden administration as part of what former President Joe Biden called an “all-of-government” effort to promote and defend abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade. It allows certified pharmacies to dispense mifepristone and permits the drug to be shipped to patients rather than being provided in person at a medical facility.
All 47 Democratic senators and 212 Democratic House members joined the filing, according to a press release from Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The brief’s lead signers include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; and Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.
The lawmakers argued that the FDA’s decision to eliminate the in-person requirement rested on scientific evidence and that reinstating it would improperly restrict the most common method of early abortion. They called Louisiana’s proposed nationwide restriction “onerous” and said it would make mifepristone more difficult to obtain, especially for women who live far from abortionists.
They also contended that the FDA began dismantling the in-person rule before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, disputing Louisiana’s claim that the agency sought to undermine the Dobbs decision. A court first suspended the requirement in 2020, the FDA announced its removal in 2021, and the agency finalized revised safety rules in 2023.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and Rosalie Markezich brought the lawsuit against the FDA. Markezich alleged that her former boyfriend pressured her into taking abortion pills he obtained by mail in 2023, killing her unborn child and causing lasting physical and emotional harm. The plaintiffs argued that removing in-person medical oversight exposes women to coercion and complications while also undermining Louisiana’s pro-life laws.
In their latest reply brief, filed July 29, the plaintiffs also challenged the evidence the FDA cited for the removal of the safeguard. Louisiana cited data in the agency record showing more than twice as many emergency-room visits following telemedicine and mail dispensing compared with emergency-room visits after an in-person visit. The drugmakers defending the rules have disputed whether emergency-room visits necessarily indicate serious medical harm.
The case has already reached the Supreme Court once on an emergency basis. The Fifth Circuit temporarily restored the in-person safeguard May 1, but the Supreme Court blocked that order May 14 while the appeal proceeds, allowing mail distribution to continue.
In a July 15 brief, the Department of Justice asked the appeals court to uphold a district judge’s decision pausing Louisiana’s litigation while the FDA conducts a safety review, or alternatively to hold the appeal itself in abeyance. The Trump administration also argued that Louisiana and Markezich lack legal standing.
That posture has intensified pro-life pressure on the administration. As Zeale News recently reported, CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt has repeatedly called on President Donald Trump to reverse the telehealth expansion and remove the drugs from the mail.
Ahead of the State of the Union in February, Reinhardt called chemical abortion “the front line of the abortion industry” and urged the President to rescind the Biden administration’s policy. When the Justice Department sought to pause or dismiss a separate challenge brought by Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas, she warned that any serious defense of unborn life must confront chemical abortion directly.
“At minimum, it requires enforcing the safeguards that once governed these drugs,” Reinhardt told Zeale in March, while also calling for an end to casual mail distribution and support for states’ authority to protect life.
Chemical abortions now account for nearly two-thirds of clinician-provided abortions in the U.S.
From Zeale.co
Most Republicans will not oppose the mail delivery of that pill. It’s too popular in America and they don’t want to lose votes or elections to Democrats. I say keep it being delivered if that means Republicans can win. In an alternate set of circumstances I might hold differently. Currently, ensuring that Democrats do not win elections is paramount in American politics.
At worst it is remote material cooperation with evil to continue allowing mail delivery of the abortion pill. Morally permissible for just reasons.
No. Take a firm adult moral stand for Christ, like all the Pro Life groups of young kids, many who are greatly persecuted on high school and college campuses, for defending the lives of precious unborn children. For the Republican Party to be in power will not guarantee anything. Republicans and Democrats need pressure, lobbying, and education, to respect and protect the lives of unborn children. Pray, and work hard for Pro Life. Kelsey Reinhardt, President of the powerful organization, CatholicVote, Lila Rose, founder and President of LiveAction, Kristan Hawkins, President of Students fir Life of America, and many others, are working hard to end the horrific crime of killing children in their mothers’ wombs.
If you take a firm moral stand imprudently you will lose the country to the Muslims and Democratic Socialists. You want the whole country to turn into California and have social relations that resemble the way the WNBA players get along?
Sorry, but legal abortion is a lost cause, just as gay marriage is a lost cause, and transgenderism is nearly a lost cause. Conservatives are slowly losing the culture and the country. Thank God I’ll be dead before the worst of it happens.
No. Have faith. Many in the USCCB are cowards. Don’t be like them. Did you know that pro life and pro Christian marriage and pro two biological genders only (man and woman) Supreme Court justices now have to wear bulletproof vests because of all the radical leftist activists hurling daily death threats at their doors? Be courageous, stand up for Christ until the day He takes you Home with Him. He will not be there for you if you publicly refuse to take a stand for Him and for His children, who are daily in danger of death by abortion. Standing up firmly for Christ is never “imprudent”– give your life to Him, be at peace. Read all about what white abolitionists went through, standing firmly against slavery, for Christ. And Pres. Lincoln got assassinated. So be it.
My former political party has truly become a party of death.
If they’re really for choice, why can’t some states choose to protect their babies and mothers from the abortionists?
(Of course, all states should.)
Reply to Deacon Craig Anderson: The Democrats have been the party of death ever since they passed and supported Roe versus Wade into law in 1973. They will face the judgement of Almighty God for not protecting the most innocent and vulnerable of their citizens which the unborn are. End Abortion Now! Adoption is the option.
Just to be clear, Roe v. Wade was not passed by any legislative body. It was forced on the nation by the Supreme Court. There were pro-life Democrats in the 1970’s and 80’s for sure. Then, they were purged from the party. No diversity allowed there. And, yes, of course, those who support killing babies and wounding their mothers will face the judgment of God (like all of us). Lord, have mercy and bring us to repentance.
Reply to Deacon Craig Anderson: Yes you are right. The 1973 Supreme Court Roe versus Wade was a 7-2 majority decision issued by a court composed of justices appointed by both Republicans and Democratic presidents. The majority opinion was written by Justice Harry Blackmun, an appointment by Republican President Richard Nixon. Of the 7 justices in the majority, 5 were appointed by Republicans and 2 were appointed by Democrats. The two dissenting justices were appointed by Democratic President John F. Kennedy and Republican President Richard Nixon. End Abortion Now! Adoption is the option.
Yes, and most of our Bishops want us to always vote for Democrats.
Why do they feel compelled to force this on states like Texas, and others, that want to protect their babies, women and girls?
If you want to kill babies, smoke marijuana recreationally, go to any restroom or locker room, pay high taxes, having rolling blackouts and weak dioceses, stay in or move to California.
Please don’t foist your “Catholic” governor on the rest of the nation. We have a true Catholic governor here.
Reply to a Texas Catholic: Yes Texas has an excellent Catholic Governor. It’s too bad the other states can’t be just like Texas. It’s high time all of America turn back to God or face the negative consequences. Pray for America the land of the free and brave. Our Lady of Fatima pray for America.
Reply to Texas Catholic: Yes gruesome Newsom would make a terrible President.
The Democrats are nothing more than a killing machine for the unborn children of America. Chemical abortions are diabolical and simply must end or America will face the judgement of Almighty God. America it’s high time you turn back to God. End Abortion Now! Adoption is the option.
Right after Vatican II, the Catholic Church began to collapse. Many of the clergy and laity started to question Catholic teachings. Priests no longer gave sermons on Christian Morality, and focused on topics of the day, such as anti-Vietnam War, poverty, racism, etc. Many priests and laymen disagreed with Catholic teachings on birth control– some even accepted abortion. The wrongful belief of “situation ethics” became popular. Catholics had nothing to follow anymore, and became secularized. Many left the Church and led destructive, promiscuous lives. The importance of leading a good, chaste Christian life, and the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, with blessings of Children (Motherhood, Fatherhood) was abandoned. Many of our prelates and popes today, are no longer true Catholic or Christian leaders. Societies, worldwide, will always collapse, without the Church’s teaching and guidance in Faith and Morals. Just her strong influence helps influence other churches, and non-believers. Religion is the one big source– not politics– that influences and forms religious Faith and Morals in the lives of all citizens, in a society. Our Catholic clerical leaders must recognize and work to correct this situation.
Democrats:
Make a Baby ….. Destroy a Baby
Make a Baby ….. Destroy a Baby
See a pattern? What Futility!
“Walk no longer as the unbelievers do,
in the Futility of their Minds.” Ephesians 4:17
Kelsey Rheinhardt, president and CEO of Catholic Vote, was a nun for ten years, in the Nashville Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia religious order. She was born and raised in Wyoming, was a gifted student in school, and talented in athletics, and won a four-year womens’ basketball scholarship to Univ. of Notre Dame, before becoming a nun. She is now married and a mother.
Kelsey Rheinhardt is talented in communications, media, campus ministry and evangelization, similar to EWTN’s Montse Alvarado, who was recently named as Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery of Communication. Kelsey married her husband, Matt, in 2023, and they had their first baby, a boy, named James Dominic, around March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation. She posted photos of her baby and a lovely birth announcement on March 25th on X and other social media. Kelsey says she is 6’2″ in heels. She has appealing, traditional American Midwestern looks– and has a lovely personality. Looks like a lovely portrait of a traditional American mother and baby, which I loved, growing up. No smart-aleck, ugly, egotistical hipness, pseudo-sophistication, or trendiness. A wonderful, neighborly, All-American, Girl Next Door, who is active in her church and community. May God bless her wonderful work for Christ.
Love to hear our American Pope’s wonderful, Midwestern accent, of the Chicago area, and typical plain, reasoned, objective, clear manner of speaking. But I would much prefer the mature perspectives on life and religion, of his mom and dad, now sadly lost in our pope’s “generation.” The Pope’s father was a WWII D-Day hero, who truly helped save our country and the Western world. He also was a Catholic school teacher, administrator and superintendent, and a parish catechist. We desperately need good, honest, orthodox Catholic educators today, like Mr. Prevost, in all Catholic schools and colleges.
Yes, the Democrat Party members all promote the American Holocaust and most American bishops and priests register as Democrats.
Hypocrites.
The wonderful girls’ and womens’ sports defender, also an All American, Girl Next Door type, had a baby girl with her husband last October, and they named their daughter Margot. I greatly respect the sacrifices that Riley makes on behalf of fenale athletes, championing their great cause. She is often assaulted with death threats. May God bless Riley Gaines and her work for female athletes.
Reply to God bless Riley Gaines: Yes I agree with you. Riley Gaines is an American national treasure. She’s tenacious and has great courage. God bless Riley Gaines.