A group of Republicans in the House of Representatives are joining together to introduce two bills that would reverse the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) rule permitting women to access the abortion pill via telemedicine and through the mail. Companion bills will also be introduced in the U.S. Senate. The House bill, the “Protecting Life from Chemical Abortions Act,” along with the Senate bill, the “SAVE Moms and Babies Act of 2023,” would stipulate that women can only access the abortion pill in person – which until 2020, had been the FDA’s policy for two decades.

Additionally, the bills would:

• Prevent the executive branch from declaring an abortion-related public health emergency.
• Stop the FDA from waiving the “in person dispensing requirement” for the abortion pill and other safety regulations for chemical abortion drugs.

Another House bill, the “Nullifying President Biden FDA’s Abortion Pill Final Rule,” would reverse the FDA’s January 3, 2023, decision making the abortion pill more widely available.

On January 3, the FDA changed its “Mifepristone REMS Program” to make the first drug of the abortion pill easier to obtain, permitting retail pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens to dispense the pill. Previously, the FDA only allowed the abortion pills to be dispensed by clinics, medical offices and hospitals.

In a hugely important lawsuit concerning the rights of religious American workers’ vis-a-vis their employers, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of a former U.S. postal worker, Gerald Groff, whose request for Sundays off to observe the Sabbath was denied by the United States Postal Service (USPS).

In 2012, Groff, a Christian, began looking for a job that would allow him to honor the Sabbath on Sundays. Knowing the post office was closed on Sundays, he applied and was hired as a postal carrier in Pennsylvania. In 2013, the USPS signed a contract with Amazon to deliver packages on Sundays, and began scheduling postal workers, including Groff, to work on Sundays.

At first, the postmaster exempted Groff from Sunday work shifts so long as he covered other shifts throughout the week. In 2015, however, he was told he would be required to work on Sundays when he was scheduled, or else, he’d have to find another job. Groff transferred to another city’s post office which had not implemented Amazon Sunday deliveries, which lasted until 2017, when such deliveries began.

Groff asked to be accommodated so that he could observe the Sunday Sabbath, and his supervisors worked around his schedule for a period of time if other workers were willing to cover for him on Sundays. When others couldn’t cover his shift, he was disciplined for failing to report for his scheduled shifts. Ultimately, Groff faced termination for his repeated absences, and resigned instead.

A group of women athletes and their supporters protested at the NCAA Annual Convention, hosting a press conference and a “Tell the NCAA: Stop Discriminating Against Female Athletes Rally.”

The rally, on Thursday January 12, was held in opposition to NCAA policies that allow male athletes who “identify as” female to compete in women’s sports, “exclude young women from their own teams,” and threaten privacy and safety in locker rooms and showers.

Texas Values President Jonathan Saenz tweeted about the event, which took place in San Antonio.

Marshi Smith is a former NCAA and PAC-10 champion swimmer from the University of Arizona, and co-founder of Independent Council on Women’s Sports. She read a demand letter, telling the NCAA it would face a lawsuit unless it changed its policies.

The letter was from three attorneys with Jackson Bone Law, on behalf of ICONS, and states:

“We write as attorneys on behalf of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), a network of current and former collegiate and professional women athletes and their families, to put you on official notice that your practice of allowing male athletes on women’s teams constitutes illegal discrimination against women on the basis of sex. We hereby demand that you take direct and immediate action to establish rules to keep women’s collegiate sports female.”