The abortion pill seems safe for now, but ultra-rich conservatives won’t give up
The Supreme Court doesn’t appear ready to further restrict abortion, at least not yet. It heard a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s decisions to ease access to the abortion drug mifepristone on Tuesday, marking the first major abortion-related case to come before the court since it overturned Roe v. Wade. The majority of the court proved skeptical about the challenge brought by the right-wing Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine for one basic reason: The doctors who brought the original suit couldn’t prove that they are injured by women having access to the drug. However, that doesn’t mean that medication abortion, which accounted for 63% of abortions in 2023, is safe from future challenges. Hard-right Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas pointed the way for the next challenge: use the still-on-the-books Comstock Act of 1873, which prohibits the distribution of contraception and abortion pills through the mail. As Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern write, “Alito and Thomas know they will likely lose this case, so they’re preparing for the next one.” So is dark-money overlord Leonard Leo, the architect of the conservative court, who sits at the center of the well-funded networks that brought this case and are cooking up the next ones—and much worse. Leo, along with the Koch network, is pouring millions of dollars into Project 2025, the hard-right’s terrifying blueprint for the next authoritarian Trump administration. Among the fascist items on the Project 2025 agenda is curtailing access to birth control, and the groups are pushing for a future Trump administration to swiftly reimpose restrictions on the abortion pill. One way or another—through the Supreme Court or a second Trump presidency—Leonard Leo and his band of forced-birth zealots is determined to end family planning in America. Not to mention a century’s worth of progress in social and civil rights. Unless he is stopped. He can be. Last August, Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced a probe into Leo’s network possibly over potential tax law violations. Predictably, Leo’s vast network of supporters—including MAGA Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan in the House—have swarmed against Schwalb, launching an investigation into him, while conservative media attacks him. This is where the Senate—and specifically, Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin—needs to step up. Last November, the committee authorized subpoenas to both Leo and Harlan Crow, Justice Thomas’s billionaire patron. Months later, Durbin is just sitting on those subpoenas. In February, the Illinois senator told ProPublica that the committee is “still working on it.” And they are apparently still working on it. Durbin has had plenty to say in the intervening weeks about his concerns that the conservative Supreme Court won’t deal with its ethics issues and that it is delaying a decision on Trump's immunity claims, saying it "makes it more difficult" to resolve Trump's many legal issues before the election. Yet he is still not doing the one thing in his power that would maximize pressure on the court and shine a bright light on alleged corruption there: bringing Leo in front of a Senate panel. It’s time. Too much hangs in the balance to continue delaying it. RELATED STORIES: When it comes to abortion, it’s the Alito—and Leo—Supreme Court now Dark money is flowing to groups trying to limit medication abortion. Leonard Leo is at the core Republicans want you to forget they hate birth control One of the most under-represented groups in elective office is also one of the least discussed: moms, especially mothers of young children. On this week's episode of "The Downballot," we're talking with Liuba Grechen Shirley, the founder of Vote Mama, an organization devoted to electing progressive moms at all levels of the ballot. Embedded Content Campaign Action
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The Supreme Court doesn’t appear ready to further restrict abortion, at least not yet. It heard a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s decisions to ease access to the abortion drug mifepristone on Tuesday, marking the first major abortion-related case to come before the court since it overturned Roe v. Wade. The majority of the court proved skeptical about the challenge brought by the right-wing Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine for one basic reason: The doctors who brought the original suit couldn’t prove that they are injured by women having access to the drug.
However, that doesn’t mean that medication abortion, which accounted for 63% of abortions in 2023, is safe from future challenges. Hard-right Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas pointed the way for the next challenge: use the still-on-the-books Comstock Act of 1873, which prohibits the distribution of contraception and abortion pills through the mail. As Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern write, “Alito and Thomas know they will likely lose this case, so they’re preparing for the next one.”
So is dark-money overlord Leonard Leo, the architect of the conservative court, who sits at the center of the well-funded networks that brought this case and are cooking up the next ones—and much worse. Leo, along with the Koch network, is pouring millions of dollars into Project 2025, the hard-right’s terrifying blueprint for the next authoritarian Trump administration. Among the fascist items on the Project 2025 agenda is curtailing access to birth control, and the groups are pushing for a future Trump administration to swiftly reimpose restrictions on the abortion pill.
One way or another—through the Supreme Court or a second Trump presidency—Leonard Leo and his band of forced-birth zealots is determined to end family planning in America. Not to mention a century’s worth of progress in social and civil rights.
Unless he is stopped.
He can be. Last August, Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced a probe into Leo’s network possibly over potential tax law violations. Predictably, Leo’s vast network of supporters—including MAGA Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan in the House—have swarmed against Schwalb, launching an investigation into him, while conservative media attacks him.
This is where the Senate—and specifically, Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin—needs to step up. Last November, the committee authorized subpoenas to both Leo and Harlan Crow, Justice Thomas’s billionaire patron.
Months later, Durbin is just sitting on those subpoenas. In February, the Illinois senator told ProPublica that the committee is “still working on it.” And they are apparently still working on it. Durbin has had plenty to say in the intervening weeks about his concerns that the conservative Supreme Court won’t deal with its ethics issues and that it is delaying a decision on Trump's immunity claims, saying it "makes it more difficult" to resolve Trump's many legal issues before the election.
Yet he is still not doing the one thing in his power that would maximize pressure on the court and shine a bright light on alleged corruption there: bringing Leo in front of a Senate panel. It’s time. Too much hangs in the balance to continue delaying it.
RELATED STORIES:
When it comes to abortion, it’s the Alito—and Leo—Supreme Court now
Dark money is flowing to groups trying to limit medication abortion. Leonard Leo is at the core
Republicans want you to forget they hate birth control
One of the most under-represented groups in elective office is also one of the least discussed: moms, especially mothers of young children. On this week's episode of "The Downballot," we're talking with Liuba Grechen Shirley, the founder of Vote Mama, an organization devoted to electing progressive moms at all levels of the ballot.
