Dear John,
Much of this week was spent waiting for the Supreme Court's response to an emergency application filed by the Department of Justice and Danco to stay a lower court’s decision that would severely limit access to the abortion medication mifepristone. Manufactured by Danco, the medication is one of two used in over 50 percent of abortions across the U.S. While the Court was initially expected to issue a decision Wednesday, Justice Alito extended the temporary stay on the Fifth Circuit court of Appeals’ ruling until Friday.
On Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court ruled that mifepristone should remain available, for now, as the case continues to play out in the lower court. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear the case on May 17, and the issue will likely return to the Supreme Court.
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, with Alito writing that the Biden administration and the pill’s manufacturer Danco "are not entitled to a stay because they have not shown that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the interim."
What about the irreparable harm to women would have suffered?
Meanwhile, the pressure to ensure access to mifepristone keeps growing. On Wednesday, GenBioPro, the maker of a generic version of mifepristone, sued the FDA. The suit seeks to force the FDA to allow the company to continue to sell the medication in the U.S., and comes in response to the same Texas ruling that the Court spent this week deliberating.
On Thursday, Julie Su, the Biden administration’s Labor Secretary nominee, appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. Though the Democrats on the committee appeared largely supportive, her confirmation is far from assured. In addition to making history as the second-ever Asian American woman to hold the role (and the fourth ever woman of color!) Su is a dedicated advocate for women and immigrant workers, labor unions, and working people in general. Writing for Ms. this week, Liz Schuler, the first ever woman to lead the AFL-CIO, noted, “Corporate interests and well-funded lobbyists are plotting behind closed doors to stop her confirmation. Why? They’re terrified of seeing somebody like Julie Su—someone who actually looks out for working people and cannot be bought—in this pivotal role.”
We hope the Senate listens to women and workers all over this country, and confirms Julie Su.
This weekend, the U.S. observes Earth Day—we prefer celebrating the under name used in much of the rest of the world, International Mother Earth Day, as a crucial reminder that we must follow the lead of Indigenous people when it comes to climate and environmental activism. Mother Earth Day is an opportunity to rethink our relationship with nature, and shift our perspectives—and such a shift will be crucial in ensuring impactful policy change on climate and conservation.
Eight years before the first Earth Day was celebrated in April 1970, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, and in the process helped found the modern environmental movement. It “was no ordinary book,” wrote Ellen Dorsey and Marie Thormodsgard in the December 2002/January 2003 issue of Ms. “Its message resonated with a public increasingly concerned with the environment and its effect on human health. It also caught the attention of leading political figures who were not afraid to confront corporate America.”
In Carson’s words—which are as true now as when she wrote them over 50 years ago—“If we are living so intimately with chemicals, we had better know something about their power.”
Onward,
