#Contraceptive Pills Market

[kodoandsangha]

Comment on this.

It’s more than just HRT.

As I type this, the Mifepristone case is at SCOTUS. Another case to block contraceptives is on its way there.

A bill to restrict HRT to age 21+ has been proposed in Ohio.

They are currently taking comments on the issue via the MHA website linked above. The commentary phase ends January 19th at 5pm.

Please take this opportunity to make your voice heard while the window is open.

[marketreports-blog]

The global U.S. Emergency Contraceptive Pills market size was exhibited at USD 4.60 billion in 2022 and it is expected to hit around USD 7.67 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 5.25% during the forecast period from 2023 to 2032.

[marketresearchlatestreports]

The last few years has witnessed a substantial increase in number of unintended pregnancies among women, between the age of 15 and 44. Unintended pregnancies refer to pregnancy that is unplanned and unwanted for women. Rising number of unintended pregnancies has led to abortions, in turn causing surge in healthcare expenditure. Governments worldwide, as a result, are encouraging women to adopt different contraceptive methods in a bid to decrease costs, which is leading to increased demand for oral contraceptive pills and boosting market growth.

[imr-riya]

Emergency Contraceptive Pills Market Study for 2022 to 2028 Providing Information on Growth Drivers, and Industry Analysis

Global Emergency Contraceptive Pills Market was valued at USD 1.00 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 1.14 billion by the year 2028, at a CAGR of 1.8%.

Emergency contraception may be a method of preventing pregnancy following unprotected sex. Emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs), also referred to as the contraceptive, are pills that must be taken before 120 hours (5 days) after having unprotected sex. The prescription Preven Emergency Contraception Kit was developed in the late 1990s. it had been modeled after the Yuzpe method and included four combination pills, alongside instructions and a urine bioassay. Some sorts of emergency contraception are best when used within 72 hours (3 days) of intercourse. The emergency pill works by postponing ovulation (the release of an egg during the monthly cycle). ECPs won't terminate a pregnancy if fertilization and implantation have already occurred.

To recap, the report's writers examined the Emergency Contraceptive Pills market through several segmentations, followed by an in-depth study of the industry supply and sales channel, including upstream and downstream fundamentals, to help firms efficiently roll out their goods and solutions to the market. This in-depth market analysis employs a variety of technologies to examine data from numerous primary and secondary sources. It can assist investors to find scope and possibilities by providing insight into the market's development potential. The report also goes over each section of the global Emergency Contraceptive Pills market in detail. The analysts thoroughly researched the market and created key segmentation such as product type, application, and geography. The market share, growth potential, and CAGR of each segment and its sub-segments are also examined. Each market category provides in-depth quantitative and qualitative market perspective information.

[kcinpa]

TL;DR Project 2025

Project 2025 has crossed my dash several times, so maybe tumblr is already informed about the hellish 900-page takeover plan if Trump wins office again. But even the articles covering Project 2025 can be a LOT of reading. So I'm trying to get it down to simple bulleted lists…

Navigator Research (a progressive polling outfit) found that 7 in 10 Americans are unfamiliar with Project 2025. But the more they learn about it, the more they don't like or want it. When asked about a series of policy plans taken directly from Project 2025, the bipartisan survey group responded most negatively to the following:

Allowing employers to stop paying hourly workers overtime

Allowing the government to monitor people’s pregnancies to potentially prosecute them if they miscarry

Removing health care protections for people with pre-existing conditions

Eliminating the National Weather Service, which is currently responsible for preparing for extreme weather events like heat waves, floods, and wildfires

Eliminating the Head Start program, ending preschool education for the children of low-income families

Putting a new tax on health insurance for millions of people who get insurance through their employer

Banning Medicare from negotiating for lower prescription drug costs and eliminating the $35 monthly cap on the price of insulin for seniors

Cutting Social Security benefits by raising the retirement age

Allowing employers to deny workers access to birth control

Laurie Garrett looked at the roughly 50 pages within Project 2025 that deal with Health and Human Services (HHS) and other health agencies, and summarized them on Twitter/X in a series of replies. I've shortened even more here:

HHS must "respect for the sacred rights of conscience" for Federal workers & healthcare providers and workers broadly who object to abortions, contraception, gender reassignment & other issues - ie. allow them to deny services based on religious beliefs

HHS should promote "stable and flourishing married families."

Require all welfare programs to "promote father involvement" – or terminate their funding for mothers and children.

Prioritize adoptions via faith-based organizations.

Redefine sex, eliminating all forms of gender "confusion" regarding identity and orientation.

Eliminate the Head Start program for children, entirely

Ban all funding of Planned Parenthood

Ban birth control services that are "egregious attacks on many Americans' religious & moral beliefs"

Deny pregnancy termination pills, "mail-order abortions."

Eliminate Office of Refugee Resettlement; move all refugee matters to the Department of Homeland Security

Healthcare should be "market-based"

Ban all mask and vaccine requirements.

Closely regulate the NIH w/citizen ethics panels, ensuring that no research involves fetal tissue, leads to development of new forms of Abortions or brings profits to the researchers.

Redirect the Office of Global Affairs to promoting "moral conscience" & full compliance w/the Mexico City policy

The CDC should have no role in medical policies.

"Because liberal states have now become sanctuaries for abortion tourism," HHS should use every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence & by what method.

I'm still looking for a good short summary of the environmental horrors that Project 2025 would bring if it comes to fruition…

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Year

1. Belgium approves four-day week and gives employees the right to ignore their bosses after work

Workers in Belgium will soon be able to choose a four-day week under a series of labour market reforms announced on Tuesday.

The reform package agreed by the country's multi-party coalition government will also give workers the right to turn off work devices and ignore work-related messages after hours without fear of reprisal.

"We have experienced two difficult years. With this agreement, we set a beacon for an economy that is more innovative, sustainable and digital. The aim is to be able to make people and businesses stronger," Belgian prime minister Alexander de Croo told a press conference announcing the reform package.

2. Spain makes it a crime for pro-lifers to harass people outside abortion clinics

Spain has criminalized the harassment or intimidation of women going for an abortion under new legislation approved on Wednesday by the Senate. The move, which involved changes to the penal code, means anti-abortion activists who try to convince women not to terminate their pregnancies could face up to a year behind bars.

3. House passes bill to federally decriminalize marijuana

The House has voted with a slim bipartisan majority to federally decriminalize marijuana. The vote was 220 to 204.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, will prevent federal agencies from denying federal workers security clearances for cannabis use, and will allow the Veterans’ Administration to recommend medical marijuana to veterans living with posttraumatic stress disorder.

The bill also expunges the record of people convicted of non-violent cannabis offenses, which House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, “can haunt people of color and impact the trajectory of their lives and career indefinitely.”

4. France makes birth control free for all women under 25

The scheme, which could benefit three million women, covers the pill, IUDs, contraceptive patches and other methods composed of steroid hormones.

Contraception for minors was already free in France. Several European countries, including Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway, make contraception free for teens.

5. The 1st fully hydrogen-powered passenger train service is now running in Germany. The only emissions are steam & condensed water.

Five of the trains started running in August. Another nine will be added in the coming months to replace 15 diesel trains on the regional route. Alstom says the Coradia iLint has a range of 1,000 kilometers, meaning that it can run all day on the line using a single tank of hydrogen. A hydrogen filling station has been set up on the route between Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervörde and Buxtehude.

6. Princeton will cover all tuition costs for most families making under $100,000 a year, after getting rid of student loans

In September, the New Jersey Ivy League school announced it would be expanding its financial aid program to offer free tuition, including room and board, for most families whose annual income is under $100,000 a year. Previously, the same benefit was offered to families making under $65,000 a year. This new income limit will take effect for all undergraduates starting in the fall of 2023.

Princeton was also the first school in the US to eliminate student loans from its financial aid packages.

7. Humpback whales no longer listed as endangered after major recovery

Humpback whales will be removed from Australia's threatened-species list, after the government's independent scientific panel on threatened species deemed the mammals had made a major recovery. Humpback whales will no longer be considered an endangered or vulnerable species.

Climate change and fishing still pose threats to their long-term health.

Some other uplifting news from last year:

A Cancer Trial’s Unexpected Result: Remission in Every Patient

California 100 percent powered by renewables for first time

Israel formally bans LGBTQ conversion therapy

Tokyo Passes Law to Recognize Same-Sex Partnerships

First 100,000 KG Removed From the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

As we ring in the New Year let’s remember to focus on the good news. May this be a year of even more kindness and generosity. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2023!

Thank you for following and supporting this g this newsletter

Buy me a coffee ❤️

[werechicken]

It’s all connected. The same group that’s using state sponsored transphobia as a wedge issue is also using that same anti lgbtq playbook to take apart contraception and abortion rights.

An attack on one group’s autonomy is an attack on all. We tried and we tried to tell you but like Cassandra we are fated to be ignored.

[spriteforgirls]

PSA: EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTIVE AND RESOURCES

Now feels like a good time to put out some info regarding emergency contraceptive, and what options exist. Please remember to look out for and help those around you who can get pregnant.

Levonogestrel (Plan B) and Ulipristal Acetate (Ella) are the two most common emergency contraceptive pills currently available on the US market. Plan B is effective up to 72 hours after intercourse and Ella's is effective up to 130 hours after (but it's *most* effective in that first 72 hours.) Generally speaking, the sooner you take them, the more effective they are. Both have shelf lives of up to 4 years. Plan B is less effective if you are over ~150lbs. Some countries recommend taking a 1.5x or 2x dose of Plan B if you are over ~200lbs, as this is generally deemed safe. Ella, however, is less affected by weight and should only be taken at a single dose.

Regardless, something is always better than nothing, so don't just write off Plan B entirely because of your weight. It may be *less effective* if your weight is higher, but it's NOT *ineffective*.

There is also something called the Oral Yuzpe Method, which utilizes standard hormonal birth control pills. A few things are important to make note of here: 1.) Like Levonogestrel and Ulipristal Acetate, the yuzpe method works to prevent ovulation. It will NOT terminate an existing pregnancy. 2.) The Yuzpe Method is less effective than Plan B or Ella. 3.) The Yuzpe method generally comes with more side effects than Plan B or Ella. 4.) Despite this, when push comes to shove, once again, something is better than nothing.

The Oral Yuzpe Method, as previously mentioned, is an off-label use of BC pills. It generally calls for taking 2 large doses of BC pills taken 12 hours apart. How large that dose is varies on the exact pills, but generally speaking, it's usually about 4. Here is a dose reference table from the American Academy of Family Physicians:

So, for example, if the BC pills you have are Levora, you would take 4 pills all at once, then 12 hours later, you would once again take 4 more pills, adding up to a total of 8 pills taken.

The third and final emergency contraceptive I will touch on in this post is IUD insertion. I put this last on the list because, in general, it's already quite difficult to find and access a physician willing to place an IUD on very short notice, and I suspect that will only get more difficult as time passes.

But, in the rare instance where a willing physician is available within 72 hours of the unprotected intercourse, you can request placement of a copper IUD (like Paraguard). It may be more difficult to find a physician willing to place a hormonal IUD (like Mirena, Kyleena, Liletta, or Skyla.) on short notice as this would be considered an off-label use.

The exact reason why copper IUD placement works isn't completely understood, but like the previous two methods, it is NOT a way to terminate an existing pregnancy and likely works by preventing ovulation before fertilization occurs.

[tulipanthousa]

not sure if this belongs here or on the sfw blog so I'll do it here to be safe

since Janus was like "hey I'm glad we have the twins but I never want to be pregnant again," the birth control question that got postponed in SBYF is now in my head again. what's the birth control situation like in Pieces verse? do they have condoms, or is it more along the lines of "track your periods and pray" lmao

also, is it different for nobles vs common folk? and what's the societal attitude towards using birth control in this universe?

(only if you want to answer + it's not a spoiler!)

i'm torn between this being a universe where the birth control plant the romans used exists and was not driven to extinction before it could be domesticated and made universally available

or just stretching the technology timeline a little farther and making hormonal birth control a thing - the first hormonal birth control was put on the market in 1960, and i normally stop off at 1950 max so its not that much of a stretch

either way, there is some kind of oral contraceptive involved. if i go with the pill, it would probably be like Enovid, an early birth control which had the prototypical 21 days of pills and 7 days of placebo, so it could be used in conjunction with the rhythm method (aka the tracking you mentioned)

and i think they probably do use condoms (commercially available since the 1860s, and animal-skin based diaphrams and the like have been recorded as far back as antiquity), but not every time, just during points in janus's cycle where he'd be theoretically ovulating, as an extra layer of protection. rubber would be the most historically accurate for a synthetic one, so i think they would probably go with skin. animal skin condoms are perfectly safe for fluid-bonded couples, they dont block STDs but niether of them have ever had sex with anyone else so thats not a concern, and also the idea of rubber touching business makes me wanna gag so i dont want to think about it aksjdhaksjdhkj

so while they are not super hardline at every possible avenue, they do become overall pretty careful.

as for whether or not janus would choose abort an oopsie baby, i feel like that plotline has an uncomfortable potential for either me accidentally getting preachy as fuck about reproductive rights in my fic, or inviting rancid discourse into my ask, so i dont plan on exploring it at any point. its not going to be a concern because theyre fictional and im writing it, but you can headcanon as you please (though i would prefer if you didnt send any especially inflammatory takes to my inbox)

[imdowndownbutdefinetlynotout]

"Britney Spears knows what it's like to feel trapped: First by poverty, then by fame, then by her family.

She has been subject to scrutiny and ridicule throughout her life. As a teenager, journalists repeatedly asked her questions about her breasts and her sex life. As an adult, she was imprisoned under a conservatorship that stripped her of some of the most basic human rights.

For 13 years, she could not see her two sons without approval. Her driving licence was confiscated. She could not choose her meals, and was forbidden from drinking tea or coffee. When she wanted to have a contraceptive intrauterine device (IUD) removed, her request was denied.

That court-imposed order, overseen by her father, was lifted two years ago, when a judge ruled Spears could make her own decisions again.

But her new memoir, The Woman In Me, reveals that was no happy ending...

Those events cast a shadow over Spears' life story. Along the way, every betrayal and public indignity feels like a step along the path to her eventual incarceration.

It began as soon as she exploded onto the pop charts in 1998. She was an overnight sensation, but the press refused to believe she had any agency. Her songs were written for her, they noted, while suggesting that her public image was created by creepy, salivating older men.

The more she was perceived as a product and a pawn of the music industry, the easier it became to erode her autonomy.

In one of the book's most chilling moments, Spears recalls her father telling her he's assumed legal control of her personal and professional affairs.

His words: "I am Britney Spears now."

The early chapters of the book stress how much people underestimated her.

Spears may not have written her music - but when she was given ...Baby One More Time, she stayed up all night to make sure her voice was "fried, and "gravelly", enhancing the song's yearning maturity.

And when it came to shooting the video, the 16-year-old rejected the original pitch - in which she'd have been "a futuristic astronaut " - and insisted on a high school setting with dancing in the corridors, just like Grease.

Both decisions were crucial to the song's success - but no-one was willing to accept a blonde teenager from a Louisiana trailer park could outsmart the collective brilliance of the music industry.

"No-one could seem to think of me as both sexy and capable," she writes. "If I was hot, I couldn't possibly be talented."

Although she exercised creative control behind the scenes, Spears' publicists infantilised her.

She was marketed as a chaste, God-fearing country girl - even though, she writes, she had been a regular smoker since the age of 14 and lost her virginity around the same time.

At first, however, she toed the PR line...

Eventually, however, Spears' innocent image set her up for a downfall.

In one of the book's most harrowing sequences, she talks about having a medical abortion during her relationship with Justin Timberlake. The pills she had been prescribed left her in agony but the couple were too scared to visit a hospital in case the news leaked. For hours, Spears was curled up, "sobbing and screaming" in pain on the bathroom floor.

"Still, they didn't take me to hospital," she says. Instead Timberlake, "thought music would help, so he got his guitar and lay there with me, strumming it."...

After their separation, she was vilified in the press, with Timberlake strongly hinting she had cheated on him (she says it was the other way round, with "one of the girls from All Saints").

Timberlake has yet to respond to his depiction in the book.

The couple's break-up only increased the appetite for gossip about Spears' personal life. The tabloids hounded her. She recalls a photographer from People magazine demanding she empty her handbag, so they could check whether she was carrying drugs or cigarettes.

Eventually, the pressure became too much. In 2007, reeling from the death of her aunt Sandra and suffering from post-partum depression, Spears marched into a hair salon, picked up some clippers and cut off her hair.

"Shaving my head was a way of saying to the world: [Expletive] you," she writes.

"I'd been the good girl for years. I'd smiled politely while TV show hosts leered at my breasts, while American parents said I was destroying their children by wearing a crop top. And I was tired of it."

We all know what happened next. Instead of being seen as an act of strength or rebellion, Spears' buzz-cut was used as evidence of instability.

Within a year, she had been placed under the conservatorship.

Spears is a straightforward writer. She doesn't embellish or decorate her prose. That matter-of-fact style amplifies the horror of those years.

She talks about being pinned down on hospital stretchers and forced to take medication against her will. At home, she isn't allowed to take a bath in private. Boyfriends are vetted and informed of her sexual history before they can go on a date.

At first, she tries to appease her parents and the doctors. "If I play along, surely they'll see how good I am and they will let me go," she says.

When she considers rebelling, access to her two young sons is used as a bargaining chip.

"My freedom in exchange for naps with my children... was a trade I was willing to make," she admits.

But even while she was supposedly incapable of looking after herself, Spears was sent out on tour, hired as a judge on X Factor and booked for a four-year Las Vegas residency.

The singer, who used to collect receipts in a glass bowl in order to keep track of her taxes, carefully documents the millions everyone else made from those engagements, while she was given a strict allowance of $2,000 (£1,635) per week.

Losing all sense of self, she almost gave up.

"The fire inside me burned out," she recalls. "The light went out of my eyes." ...

It's impossible to read The Woman In Me and not feel sad and outraged on Spears' behalf.

One tiny detail of her new life, in particular, emphasises how grey her world had become. "Now," she writes, "I get to eat chocolate again".

Spears' story is told with the same approachable warmth that made her a star. And, outside the defining events of the last 15 years, she spins a good yarn - whether describing her pregnancy cravings (food and sex, apparently); or reliving her terror at dancing with a snake at the 2001 MTV Awards.

Her family aside, there are no real villains or scandals to be uncovered. But nor are there any great revelations about Spears' music or inner life.

What we are left with, not for the first time, is a cautionary tale about fame and the corrupting influence of money. And, just maybe, a glimmer of hope for a woman whose adult life has been dictated by others.

"It's time for me not to be someone who other people want," she writes. "It's time to actually find myself."

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly at Politico:

Donald Trump says he won’t ban birth control if he returns to the White House. But he could make it a lot harder to get. As president, Trump enacted several policies that made it more difficult for people, particularly the working class and the poor, to obtain contraception — from allowing more employers to opt out of birth control coverage in their workers’ health insurance to imposing restrictions on the Title X family planning program that triggered a mass exodus of clinics.

Conservative allies want to reimpose those policies and go further if he wins in November. Their “Project 2025” blueprint includes proposals to require coverage of natural family planning methods and remove requirements that insurance cover certain emergency contraception. Taken together, the policies highlight the many ways a second Trump administration could hamper access to contraception, short of a blanket ban. The impact would also be much greater now that roughly one-third of states prohibit nearly all abortions. In the wake of the Dobbs decision, to the consternation of some conservatives, the Biden administration has worked to make contraception more accessible, approving the first birth control pill available over-the-counter and requiring more types of contraception be covered by insurance. [...]

Roger Severino, a former Trump administration official who drafted the health care section of the Project 2025 blueprint, argued that the restrictions proposed in the document are a “far cry” from pulling contraceptives off the market or criminalizing their use — actions some Democrats have warned conservatives plan to implement. “The notion that there’s a formal organized movement to ban contraception across America is downright silly. I don’t know how that idea came about. But it strikes me as political posturing in the wake of the Dobbs decision to try to mislead people into thinking everything is up for grabs having to do with sex,” Severino said. “It’s fearmongering.” The Biden campaign said last week that Trump’s contraception remarks are the latest example of the chaos he has wrought for women’s reproductive rights, particularly by appointing three conservative justices to the Supreme Court.

[...]

As part of their 2025 wish list, conservatives want to overhaul which forms of birth control insurance companies must cover for patients at no cost under the Affordable Care Act. For instance, they have drafted plans to allow insurers to drop coverage of the emergency contraceptive pill Ella, which some on the right believe is an abortifacient.

“Instead of a mandate of a particular potentially abortifacient drug, it should be opt-in instead of opt-out,” Severino said. “Mandates are a difficult thing to impose on the American people, especially when you have something as fraught as issues of potential loss of life.” Conservatives also call for a requirement to cover “fertility awareness-based methods” of family planning, such as apps to track menstruation. Waters said she would also like to see the National Institutes of Health or another entity study the long-term effects of birth control. Trump allies also hope he will bring back a number of policies from his administration. During Trump’s four years in office, his administration slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program and sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which has allowed at least 58 million women to access birth control with no out-of-pocket costs.

Federal health officials in Trump’s administration also issued rules allowing virtually any employer to refuse to cover contraception in their health plans, a policy supporters of the former president hope will be restored in 2025. The administration’s biggest impact on contraception access came from its overhaul of the federal Title X program, which provides free and subsidized birth control, STD screenings and other services to millions of low-income people. Trump’s health officials first cut the length of grants to clinics in that program from three years to eight months, creating more uncertainty and paperwork burdens for already strapped clinics. They then issued rules that banned providers from referring patients for an abortion or discussing it as an option and required clinics to construct fully separate facilities for the procedure and other services. Proponents argued the policies would ensure taxpayer dollars didn’t inadvertently support abortion, but many critics considered it a “gag rule” that prevented open communication between doctor and patient.

Politico is reporting that Donald Trump may be open to heavily restricting access to contraception and birth control instead of an outright ban. This is yet another example of the morally bankrupt Project 2025 agenda that the GOP wants to enact.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 24, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAY 25, 2024

On Wednesday, May 22, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who had been the candidate for anti-Trump Republicans, said she will vote for Trump. Haley ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination and maintained a steady stream of criticism of him, calling him “unstable,” “unhinged” and “a disaster…for our party.” Since she suspended her campaign in early March, she has continued to poll at around 20% of Republican primary voters. 

There are two ways to look at Haley’s capitulation. It might show that Trump is so strong that he has captured the entire party and is sweeping it before him. In contrast, it might show that Trump is weak, and Haley made this concession to his voters either in hopes of stepping into his place or in a desperate move to cobble the party, whose leaders are keenly aware they are an unpopular minority in the country, together. 

The Republican Party is in the midst of a civil war. The last of the establishment Republican leaders who controlled the party before 2016 are trying to wrest control of it back from Trump’s MAGA Republicans, who have taken control of the key official positions. At the same time, Trump’s MAGA voters, while a key part of the Republican base, have pushed the party so far right they have left the majority of Americans—including Republicans—far behind.

Abortion remains a major political problem for Republicans. Trump appointed the three Supreme Court justices who provided the votes to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right to abortion, and he has boasted repeatedly that he ended Roe. This pleases his white evangelical base but not the majority of the American people.

According to a recent Pew poll, 63% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while only 36% think it should be illegal in most or all cases. But Republicans are continuing to push unpopular antiabortion legislation. On Thursday, Louisiana lawmakers approved a law classifying mifepristone and misoprostol, two drugs commonly used in abortions, as dangerous drugs—a category usually reserved for addictive medications—making it a crime to possess abortion pills without a prescription. 

Louisiana prohibits abortions except to save the life of the mother or in cases in which the fetus has a condition incompatible with life. The law requires doctors to get a special license to prescribe the drugs, one of which is used for routine reproductive care as well as abortions. The state would then keep a record of those prescriptions, effectively a database to monitor women’s pregnancies and the doctors who treat them. Louisiana governor Jeff Landry, a Republican, is expected to sign the measure into law. 

Trump has repeatedly promised to weigh in on the mifepristone question but, likely aware that he cannot please both his base and voters, has not done so. On Tuesday, May 21, though, he stepped into a related problem. Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade, antiabortion activists have begun to talk about contraception as abortion, with some warning that it is “unbiblical.” But in February, 80% of voters polled said that contraception was “deeply important” to them, including 72% of Republican voters. On Tuesday, Trump said he was open to regulating contraception and that his campaign would issue a policy statement on contraception “very shortly.” He later walked back his earlier comments, saying they had been misinterpreted.

On May 19 the same judge who tried to remove mifepristone from the market by rescinding the FDA approval of it, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, blocked the Biden administration from implementing a new rule that requires sellers at gun shows and online to get licenses and conduct background checks. The rule closes what’s known as the “gun show loophole.” According to the Penn State McCourtney Institute for Democracy, 86% of Americans want mandatory background checks for all gun purchases. 

Trump himself is a problem for the party. His base is absolutely loyal, but he is a deeply problematic candidate for anyone else. As Susan Glasser outlined in the New Yorker yesterday, in the past week he chickened out of testifying in his ongoing criminal trial for paying hush money to an adult film actress to keep damaging information from voters in 2016 after insisting for weeks that he would. He talked about staying in office for a third term, ran a video promising that the United States will become a “unified Reich” when he wins reelection, and accused President Joe Biden of trying to have him assassinated. He will be 78 in a few weeks and is having trouble speaking.

In addition to his ongoing criminal trial, on Tuesday a filing unsealed in the case of Trump’s retention of classified documents showed that a federal judge, Beryl Howell, believed investigators had “strong evidence” that Trump “intended” to hide those documents from the federal government.

Also revealed were new photographs of Trump’s personal aide Walt Nauta moving document boxes before one of Trump’s lawyers arrived to review what Trump had, along with the information that once Trump realized that the men moving the boxes could be captured on Mar-a-Lago’s security cameras, he allegedly made sure they would avoid the cameras. The new details suggest that prosecutors have more evidence than has been made public. 

This might explain why, as Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley of Rolling Stone reported today, Trump is pressuring Republicans to pass a law shielding presidents from prosecution in state or local courts, moving prosecutions to federal courts where a president could stop them.

Yesterday, Marilyn W. Thompson of ProPublica reported on yet another potentially harmful legal story. There were a number of discrimination and harassment complaints made against the Trump campaign in 2016 and 2020 that Trump tried to keep quiet with nondisclosure agreements. A federal magistrate judge has ordered the Trump campaign to produce a list of the complaints by May 31. Those complaints include the charge that the 2016 campaign paid women less than men and that Trump kissed a woman without her consent. 

Trump’s current behavior is not likely to reassure voters. 

Yesterday he wrote on social media that “Evan Gershkovich, the Reporter from The Wall Street Journal, who is being held by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office. He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”

There is no good interpretation of this post. If Trump does have that sort of leverage with Putin, why? And why not use it immediately? Is he openly signaling to Putin to ignore the Biden administration’s ongoing negotiations for Gershkovich’s release? Trevor Reed, who was arrested in Russia in 2019 when visiting his girlfriend in Moscow, noted: “As a former wrongful detainee in Russia, I would just like to remind everyone that President Trump had the ability to get myself and Paul Whelan out of Russia for years and chose not to. I would be skeptical of any claims about getting Evan Gershkovich back in a day.”  

Reed was freed in 2022 as part of a prisoner swap arranged by the Biden administration. 

Last night, at a rally in New York, Trump accepted the endorsement of alleged gang members, rappers Michael Williams (Sheff G) and Tegan Chambers (Sleepy Hallow). In 2023 the two men were indicted with 30 other people on 140 counts, including murder, attempted murder, illegal possession of firearms, and at least a dozen shootings. Sheff G was released from jail in April after posting a $1.5 million bond. 

Then, Trump’s people claimed that 25,000 people turned out for the rally, but they requested a permit for only 3,500, and only 3,400 tickets were issued. Aerial shots suggest there were 800–1,500 people there. 

MAGA voters don’t care about any of this, apparently, but non-MAGA Republicans and Independents do. And this might be behind Haley’s promise to vote for Trump. The unpopularity of the MAGA faction might allow Haley to step in if Trump crashes and burns, so long as she kowtows to Trump and his base. Or it might be calculated to try to repair the rift in hopes that the party can cobble together some kind of unity by November. As The Shallow State noted on X, Haley’s announcement showed that “Trump is fragile.”

But Haley’s statement that she will vote for Trump does not necessarily mean her voters will follow her. Deputy political director for the Biden campaign Juan Peñalosa met with Haley supporters in a prescheduled zoom call hours after Haley’s announcement. On Thursday afternoon the campaign issued a press release titled: “To Haley Voters: There’s a Home For You on Team Biden-Harris.”

MAGA Republicans know their agenda is unpopular, and they are working to seize power through voter suppression, violence, gerrymandering, and packing the legal system. But there are signs a bipartisan defense of democracy may be gathering strength.  

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[meret118]

The United States reached a major milestone in reproductive health care on Thursday: The FDA approved a birth control pill for over-the-counter sale without a prescription.

The medication, known as Opill, is already available with a prescription and has been approved for contraceptive use for half a century. It is more than 90 percent effective at preventing pregnancies, making it more effective than other over-the-counter options like condoms or spermicides. It uses only one hormone, progestin, which needs a few days to take effect; other birth control pills usually include estrogen as well and can be effective immediately if started at the appropriate time in the menstrual cycle.

The OTC version of Opill is expected to reach the market in early 2024. When it finally arrives on shelves, the US will join more than 100 other countries that already allow for certain contraceptives to be sold over the counter. Advocacy groups and some politicians have been calling for years for OTC birth control to be approved.

. . .

The Affordable Care Act requires health insurers to cover at least one prescription contraceptive as part of their benefits, but not any over-the-counter medication. So, barring any policy change, people’s ability to access Opill over the counter will depend on the price its manufacturer, Perrigo Company, sets.

. . .

One exception could be people on Medicaid in the 10 states that already cover over-the-counter contraceptives without a prescription. (Other states still require a doctor’s prescription for OTC products, and, in at least six states, OTC birth control of any kind has not been covered historically.)

Efforts are already underway to try to ease the cost burden of Opill. Biden has ordered his administration to consider various strategies for covering the cost of the drug. He asked the federal Health, Labor, and Treasury Departments to consult with employers, pharmacists, and insurers about how they could provide that coverage. He also asked the relevant agencies to draft guidance for best practices for providing “seamless coverage” of OTC birth control. Those discussions could draw on the examples of states like Delaware, which already cover OTC contraceptives through their Medicaid program.