- MSNBC’s Chris Hayes suggesting maybe, just maybe, Trump misrepresented his self-reported height and weight

In response to defeats at the ballot box across the country—including in deep red states like Kentucky—the anti-choice lobby has decided to deploy even more insidious methods. 
 

• Pro-choice Ohioans thought they were finally out of the woods after they handily defeated a Republican-led attempt to raise the voting threshold for citizen-initiated ballot initiatives to 60 percent, which would have made it nearly impossible to enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution. No such luck. The Ohio Ballot Board approved language on Thursday for the November measure, but upon its release, it became clear that anti-choice Republicans had radically changed the wording of the initiative. Indeed, several portions were developed by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, an open opponent of abortion. 
   

• The “revised” amendment is—according to one Democratic member of the ballot board (and anyone with eyes)—“rife with misleading and defective language.” The amendment’s original language was written to assure access to abortion up until viability (when the fetus is able to survive outside of the womb) and stated “abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability,” but not in cases in which a treating physician deems the procedure necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient. LaRose turned that on its head, into an assertion that the amendment would “always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability if, in the treating physician’s determination,” the life and health exception applies. Funny how pro-choice demands sound a lot more medieval when you completely lie about them! You’ll also notice that the word “fetus” was changed to “unborn child.”
   

• As co-chair of Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights Lauren Blauvelt put it: “The entire summary is propaganda.” She noted that even the state’s Republican attorney general Dave Yost certified the group’s original wording as fair and accurate, and that some 700,000 state residents read it when they signed petitions to get the measure on the November ballot. The overtly-misleading language changes could prompt a legal challenge.

Blauvelt said she isn’t worried about the difficulties posed by the misleading language,  and well, that makes one of us!
 

• South Carolina’s newly all-male Supreme Court (no sentence with this preface can end well) decided on Wednesday to uphold a law banning most abortions except in the earliest weeks of pregnancy, when many women don’t even yet know that they’re pregnant. The 4-1 ruling reverses the court’s own decision months earlier striking down a similar ban passed by the GOP-led state legislature in 2021. The ban upheld on Wednesday takes effect immediately. On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that West Virginia is allowed to restrict the sale of the abortion pill mifepristone, despite its approval from federal regulators as safe and effective. West Virginia district court judge Robert Chambers ruled that the state’s near-total abortion ban, signed by Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) in September 2022 takes precedence over approvals from the federal Food and Drug Administration. That…doesn’t seem right!
   

• Despite what it costs them at the ballot box, Republican officials already in power continue to use every tool in their arsenal to restrict abortion. As we saw on Wednesday’s clown show GOP debate, the reigning consensus among Republican Party candidates is nothing short of draconian. According to a New York Times analysis, abortion was the most-discussed topic of the night, commanding more airtime than the moderators devoted to disgraced former president Donald Trump. RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said on Fox News that Republican candidates need to keep talking about abortion to win. Reproductive rights advocates hope they do keep talking about it, in order to drive home just how far to the right of public consensus the GOP is on abortion. 

The Democratic message that “abortion is on the ballot” every election can be exhausting, but unfortunately it’s true. Abortion will be on the ballot every election until we fully restore reproductive rights at the federal level and Republicans stop trying to take them away.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned on Friday that inflation remains too high and suggested that the nation’s central bank may need to further increase interest rates. 

The director of the British Museum plans to step down after investigations into the theft of items from its collection by an employee failed. 

Milan registered a new record high daily average temperatures, and on Friday recorded the hottest temperature the city had seen since 1763. 

Novo Nordisk hopes to convince European governments to pay for its obesity drug Wegovy for overweight patients with comorbidities. 

Early polling results from Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections show that the ruling party and the opposition are neck and neck. The ruling party led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been in power for 43 years. 

150,000 members of the United Auto Workers have voted by an overwhelming 97 percent majority to authorize a strike at Ford, General Motors, and Stellanantis.

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The National Labor Relations Board announced a new penalties framework for union representation proceedings, stating that when an employer commits unfair labor practices during a union election, the Board will order the boss to recognize and bargain with the union. 

Manufacturing giant 3M has agreed to pay more than $6.5 million to resolve charges of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.