Republicans in Disarray
The 118th Congress began with Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives in disarray.
It took Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) 15 rounds of votes before he could lock in the necessary support to secure the speaker’s gavel—which he only held for nine months before he was ousted by his own party.
Following weeks of uncertainty during which the GOP majority cycled through numerous nominees to lead the caucus, they elected extremist Mike Johnson (R-LA) as speaker. Johnson has an extensive record as an anti-abortion zealot—he has received a 0% score from Reproductive Freedom for All every year since he was elected to the House and supports a national abortion ban.
In fact, the one topic House Republicans could agree on during the first session of the 118th Congress was attacking abortion: two of the first votes McCarthy held when he finally became speaker in January were on anti-abortion legislation.
This theme continued throughout the year. GOP spending bills contained new provisions that sought to further erode reproductive freedom, including language to roll back the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) January 2023 decision to remove restrictions that were not grounded in science and improve access to mifepristone, one of two medications used in medication abortion.
And in an unprecedented move during the summer, House Republicans hijacked a traditionally bipartisan bill—the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)—to push their anti-abortion, racist, sexist, and anti LGBTQIA+ agenda at the expense of national security.
Senate Republicans took a similarly extreme approach. For 11 months, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) single-handedly blocked Senate approval of more than 400 military promotions as a means to protest the Department of Defense’s abortion leave policy.
Additionally, Republicans in the chamber forced a vote on a resolution that aims to overturn a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) interim final rule that protects the reproductive freedom of veterans and their families.
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Democrats United for Reproductive Freedom
In sharp contrast, we continued to see bold leadership from House and Senate Democrats in their efforts to restore abortion rights and protect reproductive freedom.
For the first time ever, Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) marked the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) among Democrats’ top 10 priority pieces of legislation.
House Democrats also filed a discharge petition on WHPA in an attempt to force House Republicans to hold a vote on this critical legislation. The discharge petition was signed by every member of the House Democratic Caucus except lone anti-abortion Democrat Henry Cuellar (D-TX). House Democrats also remained united in their opposition to harmful anti-abortion riders in spending bills and the NDAA.
Champions in the Senate once again took to the floor to seek unanimous consent to pass several bills to protect reproductive freedom—including legislation on the right to contraception, the right to travel for abortion care, protections for providers, and protecting people’s online health and location data—yet, Senate Republicans prevented every single measure from being adopted.
Senate Democrats succeeded at keeping the harmful and extreme provisions included in the House version of the NDAA from making it into the final version of the bill, and blocking Republican attempts to overturn a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) rule that allows veterans, eligible family members, and caretakers to access abortion care through the VA in cases of rape, incest, and when the life or health of the pregnant person is endangered.
Notably, the Senate confirmed three judicial nominees with a history of protecting reproductive freedom, including Julie Rikelman—the first reproductive rights litigator nominated to the federal courts—who famously argued Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization before the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Abortion Back at the U.S. Supreme Court
Beyond the halls of Congress, attacks on reproductive freedom played out in the courts. An ongoing lawsuit, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. the Food and Drug Administration (AHM v. FDA), challenges the legality of the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.
Mifepristone is essential in the standard medication abortion regimen, as well as care for miscarriage management, and has been approved by the FDA for nearly two and a half decades.
This case, in which the extremist Alliance Defending Freedom represents the plaintiff, was assigned to known abortion opponent and Trump appointed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk after being filed in a district where he is known to receive the vast majority of cases filed there.
Kacsmaryk issued an injunction to rescind mifepristone approval while litigation continued, which was appealed by the FDA to the Fifth Circuit, where it was mostly upheld. The case was brought for review to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On December 13, the Court issued an order to hear oral arguments in the case, which will likely take place in the spring of 2024. The Supreme Court’s decision to hear this case gives justices yet another opportunity to roll back abortion access in our country even further by placing extreme and medically unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone in all 50 states.
As abortion access again hangs in the balance for millions of Americans, this case illustrates the power held by a single district court judge to shape reproductive freedom across the country. It is critical to put forward and confirm judicial nominees with records of protecting reproductive freedom to the federal bench.
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