Roe v Wade has been overturned. How do you feel about that?

[Dave_LF]

I thought she was a presumtive US Senate candidate?

By way of contrast, my precinct had no hot issues on the ballot yesterday (and only one issue of any temperature), and when I fed mine into the machine at 12:45pm, it informed me I was #20 for the day.

[Frelga]

I will repeat myself by saying that with Dobbs, Republicans shot themselves in the balls, and the only reason they still have a chance at winning any elections is massive voter suppression and a partisan SCOTUS.

[RoseMorninStar]

Voter suppression, partisan SCOTUS, and gerrymandering.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Marc E. Elias
@marceelias
BREAKING: Ohio Supreme Court unanimously REJECTS GOP lawsuit to block Reproductive Freedom ballot initiative. Clears last legal hurdle to November election.

[N.E. Brigand]

I saw something earlier that suggested that turnout in Cuyahoga County was higher than expected.

Cuyahoga County turnout was high for an off-cycle election, although it was low in Cleveland itself (where I live). But every single community in the county, including those suburbs that voted for Donald Trump over Joe Biden three years ago, voted "no" on Issue 1, albeit by small margins in some cases.

- - - - - - - - - - -
And looking ahead to November: some Ohio Republicans had sued to stop the abortions rights measure from being on the ballot on the grounds that it didn't specify exactly which laws it would void. Today the state's (Republican-controlled) supreme court issued a per curiam (plus one concurrence) ruling against that suit. Dig the grammatical analysis:

"An illustration helps demystify this canon. Suppose an invitation states, 'The vegetarian and nonvegetarian meal options are tofu and chicken.' A reader would intuitively understand that tofu was the vegetarian option and chicken was the nonvegetarian option—not that either tofu or chicken was a vegetarian option. This is the distributive-phrasing canon at work."

So voters will indeed get to vote on this measure in three months.

(As I hit preview, I see that V beat me to the same news, but I'm posting anyway.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Your post gives more information than mine did.

[N.E. Brigand]

Since 1984, Republican U.S. presidents have blocked the U.S. from funding overseas non-governmental organizations that provide abortion services or even information about abortion services. Each Democratic U.S. president in that time frame has restored the blocked funding to these organizations.

A new study finds that the result is that more women worldwide die when a Republican is the U.S. president.

Because access to abortion saves women's lives.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The Supreme Court has stayed Judge Kacsmaryk's ruling (which banned mifepristone) pending appeal. Justices Thomas and Alito dissent, the latter with an opinion.

I meant to post about this yesterday. The conservative Fifth Circuit has partly upheld and partly reversed Judge Kacmaryk's ruling.

Appeals court says abortion pill mifepristone should remain on the market but rules in favor of limiting access

Wednesday’s ruling reversed parts of April’s blockbuster ruling from US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk that would have suspended the federal government’s two-decade old approval of the drug. The appeals court, however, agreed with Kascmaryk that it was likely unlawful for the government to make more recent changes to the drug’s regulations that made it easier to obtain.

While the appeals court majority did not rule in favor of pulling the mifepristone off the market, as abortion foes were seeking, the appeals court showed itself to be very sympathetic to a large swath of the challengers’ arguments.

The appeals court endorsed most of the procedural arguments that the challengers made for why it was appropriate for a court to intervene. Elrod’s opinion also embraced claims about mifepristone’s risks, put forward by anti-abortion doctors challenging the FDA approval, even though those characterizations had been widely rebuked by mainstream medical groups.

In concluding that FDA’s moves to relax the pills’ regulations should be reversed, Elrod wrote, “the public interest is disserved by a drug that does not afford adequate protections to its users.”

“To be clear, the evidence does not show that mifepristone is unsafe in all applications,” the appeals court said. “But on this record and at this preliminary stage, the Medical Organizations and Doctors have made a substantial showing that the 2016 Amendments and 2021 Non-Enforcement Decision were taken without sufficient consideration of the effects those changes would have on patients.”

The DOJ has already said that it will appeal to the Supreme Court, and the stay will remain in place until that is decided.

[N.E. Brigand]

Ohio's secretary of state, Frank LaRose, has approved the ballot language for the summary of November's pro-choice amendment. The text he approved includes multiple references to "unborn child," which was not in the summary that was used with petitions that got the measure on the ballot, and it removes references to birth control and miscarriages. I haven't done a word count, but the new summary appears to be longer than the old summary and longer than the full text of the amendment itself.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

Josh Marshall pens some interesting thoughts about "The End of the Pro-Life Movement." It probably will be a drawn-out and agonizing end, but Marshall notes that three weeks ago, in the first Republican presidential debate, the most traditional conservative candidate, former Vice President Mike Pence, "staked his campaign on his bible-rooted, evangelical, pro-life record and endorsed a 15-week national ban." Only about 5% of abortions happen after the first 15 weeks: "If the most diehard of pro-life evangelical politicians are now willing to concede 95% of abortions in the U.S., it’s as though they never meant the whole decades long argument in the first place." And then last week, there was reporting about how several prominent Republican senators feel that the public incorrectly believes that "pro-life" indicates a position "against all abortions … at all levels." That is of course exactly what it has been understood to mean for decades. But now that the Dobbs ruling has made it possible for them to enact what they long claimed to desire, they're afraid.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Posted without comment.

[River]

I wonder what was in her vape pen. Not that it matters for the pregnant lady behind her but I am old enough to get a giggle out of a social conservative indulging in recreational pot.

My favorite bit of that whole sordid mess at the Buell theater was the part where she adjusts her skin-tight dress. Nothing says classy like having to stuff yourself back into your clothes. She's a public figure. She should hire a stylist. Or a tailor.

[N.E. Brigand]

In light of Republicans proposed budget cuts, Matt Yglesias, a very moderate liberal, says "while I have always enjoyed the joke that Republicans believe life begins at conception and ends at birth, the reality is they are trying to cut nutrition support for pregnant women too."

[N.E. Brigand]

A new poll of Ohioans from Baldwin Wallace University (in the Cleveland suburb of Berea) finds the same results as other polls over the past couple years: 58% of Ohioans support Issue 1, the ballot measure to be voted on next month that would essentially codify Roe v. Wade in this state.

[N.E. Brigand]

Just returned from voting yes on Issue 1. There was no line, but the polling place was much more active than I experienced back in August. That day there were only two or three voters there when I came in. Today I saw about fifteen voters in there. This is Cleveland, which is a Democratic stronghold.

That said, I did notice earlier today that one of my coworkers, a denizen of the inner-ring suburbs and someone I'm pretty sure is pro-life, was sporting an "I voted" sticker, which I can't remember seeing her wear on past election days.

And another coworker, who is very smart and probably pro-choice but not politically minded, didn't even realize that it was Election Day -- despite the fact that our People & Culture dept. (=HR) sent out a general reminder last week to staff about being allowed to use two paid hours today to vote if needed. And she didn't know anything about what was on the ballot today. She says she only votes in presidential elections, and she's moved since the last one, so she's not registered where she currently lives.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Hoping for a good result!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The amendment has passed. Good job N.E.B.

[RoseMorninStar]

That's amazing. They tried really hard to pull that one over on the voters.

[N.E. Brigand]

On Fox News tonight, Sean Hannity said, "Democrats are trying to scare women into thinking Republicans don't want abortion legal under any circumstances."