December 13, 2023 01:38 PM UTC

As SCOTUS Prepares to Tackle Abortion Drugs, Republicans Fret Over Narrative

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• by: Colorado Pols

When the United States Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v Wade in June 2022, it sparked nationwide outrage that cost Republicans dearly in the 2022 election and has continued to complicate GOP electoral interests in even the reddest of states.

In the 18 months since Roe was overturned — thus removing national protections for abortion care — seven states have voted on statewide measures related to abortion rights; voters in all seven of those states overwhelmingly sided in favor of protecting abortion rights, most recently in Ohio. And now, to paraphrase Yogi Berra, it looks like 2024 could be déjà vu all over again. As The Associated Press reports:

The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to take up a dispute over a medication used in the most common method of abortion in the United States, its first abortion case since it overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

The justices will hear appeals from the Biden administration and the maker of the drug mifepristone asking the high court to reverse an appellate ruling that would cut off access to the drug through the mail and impose other restrictions, even in states where abortion remains legal. The restrictions include shortening from the current 10 weeks to seven weeks the time during which mifepristone can be used in pregnancy.

The nine justices rejected a separate appeal from abortion opponents who challenged the Food and Drug Administration’s initial approval of mifepristone as safe and effective in 2000.

The case will be argued in the spring, with a decision likely by late June, in the middle of the 2024 presidential and congressional campaigns.

The politics of a potential SCOTUS ban on mifepristone are not good for Republicans in a country in which a majority of voters support protecting abortion rights. Democrats have often warned that the next step in the Republican quest to control your bedroom would be prohibitions on contraception, which many right-wing religious groups eagerly promote. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has openly acknowledged that he and his friends are coming for your contraception. As the Women’s Media Center pointed out in August 2022, listen to what Congressional Republicans DO, not what they SAY:

According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 92% of Americans think birth control is “morally acceptable.” The low Republican support for the Right to Contraception Act isn’t tied to what Americans want but to the party’s definitive anti-abortion stance. Many anti-abortion organizations have stated that the bill’s “broad” definition of contraception could allow pill-induced abortions. [Pols emphasis] Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an NGO seeking to end abortions in America by supporting anti-abortion politicians, wrote in a letter to Congress that the Right to Contraception Act could allow access to “chemical abortion drugs.” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said in her remarks to the Committee on Rules that the Right to Contraception Act was a “trojan horse for more abortions” and tweeted that the act would “force people to violate their religious and sincerely held beliefs.” Rodgers claimed that the bill endangered the health and safety of women and claimed “a Planned Parenthood can use taxpayer dollars to sterilize a 13-year-old without her parents’ knowledge” and “a Medicaid beneficiary who has a mental disability can be sterilized without informed consent.”

Fighting against birth control is not a winnable issue for Republicans, which is why former top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway is sounding the alarm today about the need to change the subject. As POLITICO explains:

Kellyanne Conway is going to Capitol Hill on Wednesday with a message for Republicans: promote contraception or risk defeat in 2024. [Pols emphasis]

The former senior counselor and campaign manager for President Donald Trump is part of a group set to brief Republicans on how they might get ahead of Democrats’ attacks that the GOP is anti-woman by talking more about protecting contraception and less about banning abortion.

The visit comes as GOP presidential and congressional candidates have struggled to craft a salient message on the fallout from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Trump himself has blamed anti-abortion groups and the strict laws they support for electoral defeats in 2022 and 2023. And several prominent conservatives have implored Republicans in the post-Roe era to focus on issues such as contraception and maternal care to improve perception of the GOP’s approach to women’s health as Democrats have wielded the issue to notch several election wins.

Conway, lobbyist Susan Hirschmann and Independent Women’s Voice CEO Heather Higgins hope to back up these calls with fresh polling data. On Wednesday, they plan to meet with GOP members and staff in the House and Senate, as well as the Republican campaign arms fighting to hold the House and flip the Senate, to warn that if they don’t talk about birth control and work to make it more accessible, they risk losing voters and confirming arguments from the left that the party that outlawed abortion in much of the country is coming next for contraception. [Pols emphasis]

Anyone familiar with Colorado politics will be familiar with this head fake tactic. Republican Cory Gardner employed a similar bit of bullshit when he was running for U.S. Senate in 2014, hoping to escape from his long-standing support of “Personhood” ballot measures by promising to make over-the-counter contraception available nationwide. Gardner’s proposal was fact-checked into oblivion in short order. Gardner narrowly won that election, and in the following six years he (shockingly!) failed to follow up on those promises. The Food and Drug Administration, in fact, approved the first non-prescription oral contraceptive just a few months ago — well after Gardner’s 2020 re-election loss.

If SCOTUS ends up outlawing mifepristone next June, Republicans are likely screwed on this issue regardless of how much they pretend to like contraception in the meantime. Regardless, it’s good to know that the obfuscation is coming so that it can be rejected as quickly as possible.