DL Open Thread Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024

I had to double-check to make sure this story wasn’t from The Onion: The attorneys general of three Gilead-aspiring states are suing the FDA over rule changes regarding abortion drugs. One of their arguments: Their bans aren’t working, and they can tell because teen births haven’t gone up, and it’s in the state’s sovereign interest for more babies to be born, yes, even to teens.

Defendants’ efforts enabling the remote dispensing of abortion drugs has caused abortions for women in Plaintiff States and decreased births in Plaintiff States. This is a sovereign injury to the State in itself. […]

These estimates also show the effect of the FDA’s decision to remove all in-person dispensing protections. When data is examined in a way that reflects sensitivity to expected birth rates, these estimates strikingly “do not show evidence of an increase in births to teenagers aged 15-19,” even in states with long driving distances despite the fact that “women aged 15-19 … are more responsive to driving distances to abortion facilities than older women.” The study thus concludes that “one explanation may be that younger women are more likely to navigate online abortion finders or websites ordering mail-order medication to self-manage abortions. This study thus suggests that remote dispensing of abortion drugs by mail, common carrier, and interactive computer service is depressing expected birth rates for teenaged mothers in Plaintiff States, even if other overall birth rates may have been lower than otherwise was projected.

A loss of potential population causes further injuries as well: the States subsequent “diminishment of political representation” and “loss of federal funds,” such as potentially “losing a seat in Congress or qualifying for less federal funding if their populations are” reduced or their increase diminished.

So much for the bullshit “let the states decide” argument.

In other abortion news, states are using drug-sniffing dogs to check mail for abortion pills. It’s in the interest of intercepting illegal foreign-manufactured drugs, but the potential for further abuse by red-state zealots is clear.

Speaking of red-state zealots, their foot-dragging on energy policy makes reaching national goals all but impossible. Just further proof that the Republican Party is a death cult.

Tech bros get all the pixels, but Big Oil is doing its bit to keep Trump afloat. It’s not the billion Trump asked for, but collectively the industry has coughed up more than $54 million – for them, just a drop in the barrel.

The floor’s yours.