In the year 2000 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug mifepristone (also known as RU-486 or Mifeprex) as part of a regimen for chemically induced abortions. But on April 7, 2023—late on Good Friday—a federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction that suspended the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, pending a trial on the merits of the case. The preliminary injunction was partially reversed on appeal, but the judge’s opinion in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA casts a spotlight on the damage that mifepristone has caused to women and their preborn children. Host Michael Pauley is joined by Adam Schwend of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America to discuss the implications of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case, regarded by many legal experts as the most important abortion-related litigation since the Dobbs decision.
Faith & Politics
F&P Episode 115: South Dakota’s Pivotal Moment on Abortion
South Dakota’s 2023 legislative session marked the first time that state lawmakers had gathered since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its June 24, 2022 decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and restored to the states the ability to set their own public policy on abortion. Host Michael Pauley is joined by Dale Bartscher, the Executive Director of South Dakota Right to Life, for a discussion on how state lawmakers responded to the Dobbs decision, and how South Dakota’s pro-life community is responding to a citizen-initiated amendment that proposes to create an unlimited right to abortion in the state constitution.