Gilead is Real - The War on Women and Abortion Part 3

[GreyhoundFan]

Hooray for Governor Hobbs:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I’m so glad Shapiro won PA:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

It seems that quite a few Ohio residents aren’t okay with taking away women’s rights:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I'm so sick of reich-wingers just lying about everything.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I'm sure the reich-wingers will pressure stores to not carry OTC birth control pills. "FDA approves first over-the-counter birth control pill in U.S."

Quote

Federal regulators Thursday approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill available in the United States, a milestone in decades-long efforts to make oral contraceptives easier to obtain, especially by teenagers and women who don’t regularly see a doctor.

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Opill, made by the consumer health giant Perrigo, comes six decades after daily birth control pills were introduced in the United States, drastically changing the lives of countless women and American society. And it means the country will join about 100 other nations that allow the sale of nonprescription birth control pills.

Health experts, citing the pill’s lengthy record of safety and effectiveness, have pushed for a nonprescription pill for years, but their campaign took on new urgency after the Supreme Court last year struck down the fundamental right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade. Oral contraceptives are the most commonly used method of reversible contraception in the United States.

“It’s a transformative change in contraceptive access and reproductive health,” said Victoria Nichols, project director of Free the Pill, a coalition of dozens of groups working in support of over-the-counter birth control pills in the United States.

Opill is expected to be available over the counter in stores early in 2024, according to Perrigo. It will not have an age restriction. The suggested retail price is expected to be announced this fall. The FDA decision applies only to Opill, not to other birth control pills.

In a call with reporters, Frédérique Welgryn, global vice president for women’s health at Perrigo, said the company was committed to making Opill “affordable and accessible” to whoever needs it. She said Perrigo plans to offer financial assistance to people who qualify and hopes insurers will cover the drug, even though over-the-counter medications usually are not covered. Advocates repeatedly raised the issue of insurance coverage Thursday following the FDA action.

Dyvia Huitron, who is 19 and lives in McAllen, Tex., was 16 when she started having sex and was not able to get the pill; she said she used condoms. Her parents told her to stop having sex. Huitron said several of her friends became pregnant in high school.

“Young people absolutely need this,” said Huitron, a member of Advocates for Youth, a nonprofit organization that has been pressing for easier access to birth control. “For them to be able to get something so important in terms of taking care of their bodies, at an age when historically we have not been allowed to … it will have a really significant impact on our lives and our ability to plan for the future.”

Most antiabortion groups did not get involved in the birth control issue. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said in a statement that “the pro-life movement is opposed to abortion, and contraception by definition is not abortion — it is the prevention of conception.”

But Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins blasted the FDA action. By not requiring young women to meet with doctors, she said, it would make it “easier for criminals to cover up their sexual abuse and statutory rape crimes.”

The OTC decision comes amid ongoing turmoil following the decision overturning Roe. Today, about a quarter of women of reproductive age live in states where abortion is banned or mostly banned, with dozens of clinics across the South and Midwest no longer providing abortions. New restrictions have led to almost 25,000 fewer legal abortions, FiveThirtyEight reported.

Cost and insurance coverage remain outstanding questions about Opill.

Under the Affordable Care Act, group health plans and insurance companies are required to cover women’s preventive services, including birth control, at no cost. But that applies to prescription products; typically, insurers do not cover OTC drugs. Women’s health advocates Thursday renewed their call for insurance companies to cover Opill without a prescription, and said the Biden administration and Congress should take steps to make that happen.

Several Democratic senators and House members recently reintroduced legislation requiring insurers to cover over-the-counter birth control without any fees or out-of-pocket costs.

“It’s not enough for an over-the-counter birth control pill to be available to women — it has to be affordable, too,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement Thursday.

To try to ease access, some states require insurance companies they regulate to cover contraceptive products sold without a prescription, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. Almost 30 states and the District of Columbia allow pharmacists to write prescriptions for contraceptives, but some of the laws have age and other restrictions.

Almost half of the pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because Opill has been shown to be more effective than other forms of contraception, such as condoms, experts say it could reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. More than three-quarters of women of reproductive age favored making birth control pills available over the counter without a prescription, as long as they were shown to be safe and effective, according to a survey by KFF, a nonprofit policy research organization.

Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said, “When used as directed, daily oral contraception is safe and is expected to be more effective than currently available nonprescription contraceptive methods in preventing unintended pregnancy.”

Major medical groups, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association, have called for the change for years, saying nonprescription pills could be a boon for public health.

Opill, also called norgestrel, is sometimes called a “mini pill” because it contains only progestin, a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone. It works by thickening cervical mucus to inhibit sperm and suppressing ovulation. Opill does not contain a synthetic form of the hormone estrogen.

Birth control pills that contain both progestin and a synthetic form of estrogen — called combination pills — are more popular in the United States than progestin-only pills. But there are more medical conditions, including blood clots, that preclude use of those combination pills.

The first birth control pill was approved in 1960. Norgestrel was first cleared in 1973 under the brand name Ovrette. It was discontinued by Pfizer in 2005 for business reasons.

HRA Pharma, a Paris-based company, acquired the medication in 2014 and in recent years has worked closely with Ibis Reproductive Health, a Cambridge, Mass., research group that heads Free the Pill. HRA Pharma applied to the FDA for over-the-counter status for the drug in July 2022 shortly after being acquired by Perrigo, a giant Dublin-based manufacturer of generic medications.

China, Mexico and Portugal are among the countries that allow OTC birth control pills. In the United States, the transition to nonprescription status has been slowed by the cautious attitude of the FDA and the contentious atmosphere surrounding women’s reproductive health issues, according to industry officials.

Drugmakers seeking to sell their products without a prescription must provide evidence to the FDA that consumers can understand the label and use the medication safely without a doctor’s supervision. The agency has approved over-the-counter status for dozens of drugs, including the opioid overdose treatment Narcan, the heartburn drug Nexium and the allergy medication Claritin.

The emergency contraceptive Plan B, which is designed to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex, was approved by the FDA for over-the-counter sale in 2006, seven years after being cleared for prescription use. But an age restriction on the OTC version spurred political and legal battles until 2013, when the age rule was finally dropped. That fight discouraged some companies from trying to get approval for OTC birth control, experts say.

Perrigo applauded FDA’s approval Thursday.

“Today marks a truly momentous day for women’s health nationwide,” said Patrick Lockwood-Taylor, Perrigo’s president and chief executive. He said Opill has the potential to sharply improve access to contraception.

In May, outside experts advising the FDA voted unanimously that the benefits of approving OTC status for Opill outweigh the risks. They overrode reservations expressed by agency staffers who wondered whether physician oversight might be needed to ensure the pill was used safely and effectively.

The staffers were especially concerned that women might not adhere to directions to take the pill every day, at about the same time, and to use another form of contraception or abstain from sex if they miss a dose. They also worried that some women with breast cancer and other medical conditions might not follow instructions to avoid the medications.

Opposition to Opill’s application for nonprescription status mostly came from Catholic groups that have traditionally opposed birth control in favor of natural family-planning methods that rely on tracking a woman’s cycle, and fertility, throughout the month. Catholic groups that oppose OTC status focused, in part, on safety issues.

“We strenuously oppose the non-prescription availability of Opill,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Catholic Bioethics Center, the Catholic Medical Association and the National Association of Catholic Nurses wrote to the FDA’s outside advisers in November.

 

[CTRLZero]

OTC birth control pills are such a welcome addition to health care.  Hopefully the pills will be easily available, safe, and affordable.  I wish the Catholic Church would not try to force their beliefs on others (I say that about a lot of groups).  I’m very pleased with this approval, and hope it all rolls out smoothly.   

[Ozlsn]

20 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

But Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins blasted the FDA action. By not requiring young women to meet with doctors, she said, it would make it “easier for criminals to cover up their sexual abuse and statutory rape crimes.”

I'm not sure I'm following the reasoning here at all. Presumably young women who are being abused aren't going to doctors to get contraception, so this would help because? Statutory rape, ok, if the doctors are asking the name and age of their sexual partner maybe, but this feels like a bit of a stretch as well.

20 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

We strenuously oppose the non-prescription availability of Opill,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Catholic Bioethics Center, the Catholic Medical Association and the National Association of Catholic Nurses wrote to the FDA’s outside advisers in November.

Yeah we get it, you don't approve of any fertility control other than celibacy. Take a seat, your opinion isn't relevant.

20 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

The staffers were especially concerned that women might not adhere to directions to take the pill every day, at about the same time, and to use another form of contraception or abstain from sex if they miss a dose.

No offence here staffers but even under physician guidance that's often not well complied with. Start offering more clinical services around this (telehealth would be feasible) and better low cost access if this is an issue. Or training to OTC places - generally speaking the people who tell you when to take e.g. antibiotics and what with aren't the doctors, they're pharmacists.

Also why is this not considered an issue for Viagra which has some pretty severe side effects and can impact people with underlying health conditions in a pretty serious way too? Just asking, men are equally as good/bad at following directions here, right?

[GreyhoundFan]

The Rethugs will not rest until the U.S. is Gilead. AGs in 19 states are pushing to get medical records from other states released so they can be sure that their citizens didn't travel for an abortion. Or birth control. Or gender affirming care.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Info on a hearing going on today in TX:

 

More:

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[GreyhoundFan]

Gilead is real

 

[Ozlsn]

That case to me is unhelpful as her actions would have been illegal prior to the Supreme Court action on Roe vs Wade, and 29 weeks is past most jurisdiction's point of viability definition where no life limiting or life threatening conditions have been identified. She would likely also have faced charges in California, and probably for the same thing.

[fraurosena]

Good grief... that's horrific.

My grandson was born at 28 weeks and spent three months in hospital before he could come home. He's a happy, healthy five year old now, who'll be turning six this september and starting primary school. 

Now, I don't know that girl's circumstances, but at 29 weeks life could be viable. 

[Ozlsn]

18 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Good grief... that's horrific.

My grandson was born at 28 weeks and spent three months in hospital before he could come home. He's a happy, healthy five year old now, who'll be turning six this september and starting primary school. 

Now, I don't know that girl's circumstances, but at 29 weeks life could be viable. 

I had a 27 weeker. 29 weeks is (excluding other issues, illness and with medical support available) viable. It was on the borderline before routine antenatal steroids and surfactant, but even then high birth weight babies did survive at that gestation.

I don't know if she could have accessed a termination earlier in that state, didn't realise she was pregnant until later or what. The "pro-life" crowd don't seem to realise that making access harder at early gestations leads to more cases like this.

[Coconut Flan]

Many 24 weekers survive now and even a few 22 weekers.  24 weeks was the cut off at the hospital for resuscitation when my daughter's children were born, but I think now they'll give consideration for the heavier 22 and 23 week babies.  

[GreyhoundFan]

"The Ohio GOP’s bold abortion gambit has imploded"

Quote

The year 2022 put Republicans in a pickle on abortion rights — and nowhere was that clearer than on ballot measures.

First, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving the issue to the states. But then every state in which the issue was put to voters directly wound up supporting abortion rights — and often by large margins. The six states included swing-state Michigan, but also red states Kansas, Kentucky and Montana.

That cued up what may be the biggest ballot-measure battle of 2023 — in Ohio, where Republicans quickly signaled they’d forge a brazen strategy to prevent themselves from joining the other states in enshrining abortion rights in their constitutions.

That strategy appears to be going up in flames.

Facing such a ballot measure, Ohio Republicans moved to raise the threshold for constitutional amendments to 60 percent, from 50 percent plus one. Ohioans will vote on this — via ballot measure — on Aug. 8.

(Ohio Republicans maintained the ballot measure wasn’t necessarily about abortion, but it was evident that it was, and some have stopped pretending.)

It turns out that not only do voters overwhelmingly oppose changing the rules for amending the state constitution, but also that the abortion rights measure might have gotten to 60 percent anyway.

Suffolk University provided the data.

We learned last week that Ohioans opposed State Issue 1 — raising the ballot measure threshold, among other restrictions on the process — 57 percent to 26 percent.

Now Suffolk has released numbers on the abortion measure specifically, and the deficit for the GOP is similarly lopsided: Ohioans support the amendment 58 percent to 32 percent.

Those margins in increasingly red Ohio reinforce just how much of a political loser restricting abortion rights appears to be. To wit:

• Independents overall support the abortion rights amendment 68 percent to 22 percent. And 85 percent of independent women support it.
• Even 32 percent of Republicans support the abortion rights amendment, compared to 57 percent who oppose it.

The poll also suggests the GOP’s scheme to stop the amendment has gone poorly:

• Just one-third of those who oppose the abortion rights amendment are also in favor of State Issue 1 — the two positions in line with antiabortion activists — while two-thirds of the amendment’s supporters are against the rules change.
• Even Republicans are about evenly divided on State Issue 1, with 38 percent supporting it and 41 percent opposing it.

Views on State Issue 1 don’t neatly overlap with views of the abortion amendment, and it’s possible they could be brought more in alignment as people understand how interrelated they are in the coming weeks.

But for now, it seems as if a strong majority of Ohioans support the amendment — perhaps even enough to pass it if State Issue 1 were to somehow succeed. And many who oppose it don’t like the idea of diluting direct democracy to the extent necessary to get what they want.

As much as anything, the numbers in Ohio appear to confirm how this issue cuts when it’s on the ballot. And that’s significantly in abortion rights supporters’ direction.

The closest analogues we have from 2022 are Michigan, Kansas and Kentucky.

In a 57 percent to 43 percent vote, Michigan created a constitutional right to abortion. Kansas voters rejected a measure to remove abortion rights from its constitution, 59 percent to 41 percent. And Kentucky voters rejected an amendment saying their constitution included no right to an abortion, 52-48. (The Montana measure was narrower in scope than these.)

A 58 percent showing in Ohio would be in line with all of that. Michigan is swingier than Ohio, but it’s also a neighboring state sharing many of the same political characteristics. And Kansas and Kentucky are redder, meaning it wouldn’t seem inconceivable that support would be higher in Ohio.

It also bears emphasizing that the new Suffolk poll includes many undecideds — around 1 in 10 voters — so it’s possible that the 58 percent could increase. If it did somehow eclipse 60 percent, it might be the strongest verdict from voters to date.

It’s too early to say whether that will ultimately be the case. But given the gambit by Ohio Republicans, it would surely send a message.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[Ozlsn]

What are they going to consider abortion, I wonder. If you have a woman who has developed HELLP at 22 weeks gestation would delivering the baby be considered abortion? How about 20 weeks or earlier, when there is no chance of survival for the foetus (as happened in Arizona)?

The problem with these "religious leaders" is they are very blank and white, and cannot see the infinite shades of grey. If they started with the premise of "how can we better fund single parent families, or low income families or people with disabilities" I'd be more inclined to trust their intentions but it literally always  comes down to "control women".

 

[fraurosena]

8 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

it literally always  comes down to "control women"

I agree.

One only wants control of something (or someone) if you are afraid of what would happen to you if you don't control it. In other words, you only want control if you are afraid. And these men are apparently very, very afraid of women.

[BensAllergies]

I didn’t realize that the Ohio ballot measure vote is coming up so soon. Jill R is going to be severely sad with the results.

[Alisamer]

I suspect that if situations and facts were laid out plainly, even many republican voters would support the right to an abortion in many cases.

The republicans around me who I have spoken to about this are all adamant that if the mother's life is in danger, that's not an abortion. If the fetus is dying or dead, it's not an abortion. If the fetus is incompatible with life and the woman's health is at risk, that's not an abortion. They have a hundred exceptions where an abortion isn't actually an abortion, so naturally the laws must not apply to those situations.

Except those ARE abortions, and laws restricting abortion can and often do make abortion care in those situations illegal. But they refuse to believe that. To them, an abortion is always an elective done on a whim by someone who couldn't be bothered to use birth control and who shouldn't have been having sex anyway in their opinion. If an abortion is medically necessary, somehow it isn't actually an abortion anymore, in their eyes. And they refuse to see that the law doesn't see those shades of gray, even as women are suffering and even dying.

[Coconut Flan]

In states where it has actually become a ballot measure, the majority of the voting public is in favor of allowing abortions.  We're subject to the stranglehold of a minority of politicians who have an agenda.  

[Ozlsn]

5 hours ago, Coconut Flan said:

In states where it has actually become a ballot measure, the majority of the voting public is in favor of allowing abortions.  We're subject to the stranglehold of a minority of politicians who have an agenda.  

Which is why voting them out should be a priority. I get that voting is always a compromise for the candidate who best represents most of what you want (very rare to be all of it), but if this is an important point for people then they need to consider it. (One reason I like preferential voting is that it forces politicians towards the middle more - you don't just have to get the majority of the vote but the majority of the preferences as it's not uncommon for people to be elected with a lower first preference vote but a higher overall preference vote. Also lets people like me make a point by first preferencing a minor party but putting the better major party candidate above the godawful ones.) 

[fraurosena]

Good news for a change!

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"The right wants to decide how states decide on abortion"

Quote

One of the central arguments in opposition to Roe v. Wade was that the legality of abortion should be adjudicated at the state level. At times, this was a constitutional argument, that the Supreme Court’s initial decision overstepped its mandate and that the 10th Amendment dictated that states have the final word. Often, though, the argument was simpler: A lot of conservatives in conservative states opposed the practice. If abortion weren’t federally protected, their states could quickly outlaw the procedure.

With the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, this possibility became a reality. State legislatures moved to implement new constraints on or protections of the procedure, in line with partisan majorities. By now, about half of states have significantly restricted access.

In theory, this reflects the representative democracy at play in the country. Voters elect representatives to state legislatures, and those legislators make decisions on laws, now including abortion.

But there’s a catch. In addition to the existing divergence between public will and representation that is necessarily a part of the system — one exaggerated by extreme gerrymandering in places such as Wisconsin — there’s an obvious gap between views of abortion and past support for state-level legislators. In February, PRRI published polling showing that, in most states, most people support access to abortion. Even in a number of states that Donald Trump won by wide margins in 2020, most residents believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Many or most state legislators won their seats before the Dobbs decision, meaning that their views on the legality of abortion weren’t salient to voters. Now they very much are. New polling from CNN, conducted by SSRS, emphasizes this point. Three in 10 Americans say that they would vote only for a candidate who shares their views on abortion.

Two-thirds of Americans oppose the decision in Dobbs, according to the new CNN poll — including a third of Republicans. Nearly 4 in 10 Americans think that state governments need to do more to protect abortion access, compared with just over 1 in 10 who think that it should be banned nationally. Most of those who approve of the Dobbs decision believe that abortion should be left up to the states.

One way in which advocates for legal abortion have worked around this constraint is by bringing ballot initiatives to the ballot. Here, after all, is a direct measure of how states view the issue. Leave abortion to the states? Okay, those organizers figure, let’s put it to a vote!

And just like that, leaving it to the states isn’t quite good enough.

Voters in Ohio headed to the polls Tuesday to weigh in on Issue 1, a ballot measure that would make it harder to pass amendments to the state Constitution. This has been framed as a means of protecting the sanctity of the document but is understood by both abortion advocates and opponents as a way of blocking an expansion of abortion access in the state. Should Issue 1 pass, an amendment allowing access to abortion that is on the ballot in November would have a higher bar to clear for passage.

In PRRI’s polling, Ohioans indicated strong support for legal abortion, but the Republican legislature passed a restrictive law limiting access in 2019.

Similar efforts to game the process of adjudicating abortion laws have popped up in other states, as outlets like the 19th have reported. Republican legislators in Missouri passed legislation this year that would have made it harder to introduce ballot initiatives for statewide votes. An initiative aimed at allowing access in the state (which bans abortion almost entirely) moved forward anyway, only to be blocked by the Republican attorney general in the state over putative fiscal concerns: The state stood to lose revenue over the long term because potential taxpayers would not be born. The state Supreme Court recently allowed it to move forward.

In Mississippi, an effort to reinstate ballot initiatives was approved by the Republican majority in the legislature … except in cases of abortion.

Last year, supporters of abortion access in Michigan put an initiative on the ballot only to have it blocked by the Board of State Canvassers. The measure needed majority approval to advance, but the board split along party lines. The concerns from the two Republicans on the four-person board? That the online presentation of the language of the initiative didn’t appear to have spaces between the words. The measure was put on the ballot — and passed overwhelmingly.

This, too, has been the pattern. In Kansas, an effort to ban abortion was rejected by an overwhelming majority last year. Proposals in Kentucky and Montana to limit access to abortion were rejected. Letting state voters decide on abortion access has repeatedly led to voters supporting it.

So, instead of letting states decide, as they’d championed for so long, Republicans are often trying to limit how voters weigh in at all.

 

[47of74]

Pence is being his reich wing asshole self.

Quote

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday he expected to call out former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during this month’s Republican presidential debate for not insisting on a national abortion ban, an issue Pence says requires federal action.

“My former running mate, the governor of Florida and others are suggesting that the Supreme Court returned the question of abortion to the states,” Pence told reporters while touring the Iowa State Fair on Friday. The 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade stripped away constitutional protections for the procedure.

“I truly do believe it’s vitally important that we seize the opportunity at the national level to advance protections for the right to life, and I’ll do so as president,” he added. “This is a really big issue. It will be on the stage in Milwaukee.”

Pence was referring to the Republican presidential debate scheduled for Aug. 23 in Milwaukee.

And of course Kimmy is being her usual GQP bootlicker self.

Fuck both of them.

Edited August 12, 2023 by 47of74