All posts tagged "Abortion"

Just 10 days ago, Steven Rogers says he would have predicted Missourians were set to reinstate an abortion ban this November.

Then the latest polling results landed in his inbox. Now the professor of political science at Saint Louis University says he’s not so sure.

Of 900 likely Missouri voters surveyed in August by the SLU/YouGov Poll, of which Rogers is director, 44% opposed the abortion ban and 43% supported it. The remaining 13% were unsure, according to the latest survey released Thursday. The poll took place between Aug. 13 and Aug. 24 and has a margin of error of roughly 4 percentage points....

Two years ago, abortion opponents in Missouri tried to defeat Amendment 3, a ballot initiative to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution, by falsely telling voters that it would allow gender transition surgeries for minors — even though it wouldn’t.

Voters approved Amendment 3 anyway, overturning the near-total abortion ban enacted by Missouri’s GOP-dominated legislature that had taken effect after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Now Republican leaders in the state are trying to repeal those rights again, using the same issue. They placed a new amendment on the November ballot, also called Amendment 3, that would restore Missouri’s abortion ban while allowing limited exceptions but also constitutionally prohibit gender transition care for minors — though the state has banned surgeries and new prescriptions of puberty blockers and hormones by law since August 2023....

Conservative Supreme Court justices wrote a scathing dissent to the 7-2 decision to allow women to continue accessing the abortion pill Mifepristone via mail and telehealth.

"What is at stake is the perpetration of a scheme to undermine our decision in Dobbs v. Jackson," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his dissent, referring to the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and pulled back abortion access.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court continued a pause on an appeals court decision that restricted access to Mifepristone via telehealth and mail. The decision extended a stay that the bench handed down earlier in the month, but it is not the final decision, as it will go back to the New Orleans-based appeals court and could return to the Supreme Court docket, reported The Hill. ...

President Donald Trump has tried to ignore a top issue among his base: abortion. But now that's backfiring — and could risk further fracturing his MAGA coalition and losing support from anti-abortion activists, an analyst noted on Tuesday.

The Bulwark's Andrew Egger referred to it as Trump's "lose lose abortion dilemma" as Trump, "who has never cared personally about abortion bans, functionally cut the pro-life movement loose during his 2024 campaign and has more or less ignored the issue since his re-election, while Democrats have had their hands full opposing the things Trump is doing right now."

While Democrats pushed back on the end of Roe v. Wade and used it as a main policy point throughout the 2022 and 2024 elections, Trump has steered clear of discussing the topic, despite the mounting pushback among red states that have actively banned abortions are trying to sue to end mail abortion drugs — specifically mifepristone, which is one of the two drugs used together to induce abortion. ...

Sen. Josh Hawley's (R-MO) hopes of rallying House Republicans behind his legislation to ban Mifepristone crashed on Thursday — his own party is not-so-quietly abandoning him according to a report from NOTUS.

The Missouri senator acknowledged the uphill battle in comments to NOTUS, framing the silence from fellow Republicans as a strategic problem rather than a moral one.

"Not talking about abortion, they may think that's a feature. I think that's a bug," Hawley said. "I'm pro-life. I want to do what I can to advance the pro-life cause."

The bill has no realistic path forward in a possible Democratic-controlled Senate, so the clock is ticking, but the real problem for Hawley is that even in the Republican-controlled House, his own party is backing away.

Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), whose seat Democrats are actively targeting, openly rejected Hawley's priorities.

"It's my opinion that each and every Republican has to run their own race," Miller told NOTUS. "The state of Missouri is very much different from the state of Ohio."

Miller made clear he's siding with President Donald Trump over Hawley.

"I respect his opinion. I am extremely pro-life and I've never been anything but pro-life. But I'm going to go ahead and stick with President Trump on this one and not the senator," Miller said, adding he remains undecided on the bill. He argued abortion is an issue that "should reside" at the state level.

Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), facing a brutal reelection fight thanks to California redistricting, hasn't even bothered to read the legislation. Instead, he urged Republicans to focus on anything but abortion heading into November.

"I think what we should be focusing on right now is funding the government, get DHS back open, pass the farm bill, getting permitting reform done and working on things that actually make our economy better and make our country stronger," Valadao said.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), running in a competitive district, flatly refused to support the bill. When asked if Republicans should prioritize abortion before November, Lawler simply smiled and said, "No."

The political reality is stark: abortion is toxic for Republicans in 2026. A December AP-NORC poll found that 71% of voters want the government to prioritize economic issues, compared to just 4% who identified abortion as a key concern.

The House version of Hawley's bill, introduced by Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), currently has only five co-sponsors. Harshbarger acknowledged her team hasn't even begun serious lobbying efforts, blaming the crush of other congressional business.

"We have to work on educating the other members," Harshbarger told NOTUS. "It may be a personal thing that they want to sponsor or don't want to sponsor, maybe they don't feel the same way, or they have a district that, you know, if they do sponsor it, they'll say, 'Well, we're not going to vote for you.'"

Hawley's bill would force the FDA to revoke approval of mifepristone — the most widely used abortion pill — and allow patients to sue manufacturers. Medication abortion now accounts for more than half of all U.S. abortions, making it a prime target for anti-abortion activists.

But for vulnerable Republicans worried about their seats, the political calculus is clear: supporting Hawley's crusade is a losing proposition.

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An MS NOW panel chuckled Friday after President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were caught off guard on a question over funding to Planned Parenthood during an Oval Office event this week.

The laughter broke out during a segment about abortion advocates indicating that they could turn on Trump ahead of the midterms as both Trump and Kennedy were surprised to learn that their own administration had moved to return federal funding to Planned Parenthood. Host Chris Jansing turned to panelists Tim Miller, Bulwark podcast host and political analyst, and Sarah Matthews, spokesperson for Home of the Brave and former Trump White House deputy press secretary, for their reactions.

"You know, the ACLU said this week that the Trump administration had agreed to unfreeze millions in federal funding to Planned Parenthood. The president was asked about that by reporters. Take a listen," Jansing said. ...