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- Our boy Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) giving us a book report of the GOP-led Biden impeachment inquiry
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In the year and a half since the Dobbs decision overturned the federal right to an abortion in the United States, the terrain of the fight for reproductive rights has changed.
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Pregnant women, many of whom are carrying wanted pregnancies, have become the new faces of the reproductive rights movement. Several dozen women who have experienced or are currently experiencing pregnancy complications are awaiting decisions in cases that could expand the health exceptions in states with strict abortion bans. Nicole Blackmon, one of the plaintiffs in a case suing Tennessee, said that the state’s refusal to allow her to receive an abortion despite the medical necessity “condemned” her “to endure both physical and emotional torture, knowing that I was going to deliver a stillborn.”
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Last week, a Texas mother of two named Kate Cox asked a judge for permission to end her pregnancy, which her doctor said was medically necessary. After an initial approval, the Texas Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s ruling on Monday, and she was again forbidden from getting the procedure her doctor had explained she needed. Cox’s fetus had been diagnosed on November 27 with trisomy 18, a genetic abnormality that results in miscarriage, stillbirth, or death soon after birth in 95 percent of cases.
- Texas’ abortion ban is among the nation’s strictest, but it includes a medical exception allowing the procedure if, in a doctor's "reasonable medical judgment," the mother has a "life-threatening condition" related to the pregnancy that puts her at risk of death or "substantial impairment of a major bodily function.” By the letter of the law, Cox should have qualified. Her case exposed that even medical exceptions are hollow promises from anti-choice lawmakers. The debacle prompted even far-right Ann Coulter to comment, “The prolife movement has gone from compassion for the child to cruelty to the mother (and child). Trisomy 18 is not a condition that is compatible with life.”
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The Cox case has further exposed the anti-choice movement for what many in the pro-choice movement have always known it to be: one to control women’s bodies, not “protect life.”
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Kate Cox had the means to leave her state and get an abortion elsewhere, but many women in her situation do not. Almost two dozen people, including two doctors, filed a lawsuit against Texas claiming that the state’s near-total abortion ban violates their rights under the state constitution. Many of the plaintiffs had been denied abortions even after it was determined their fetuses would be stillborn. Others, like Cox, were faced with not only that, but also threats to their future fertility if forced to carry to term.
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This abject cruelty has been (would you believe it) politically toxic for Republicans. Even hard-liners like Coulter (who recently toyed with the idea of revoking women’s right to vote!) have urged fellow “pro-lifers” to “stop pushing strict limits on abortion, or there will be no Republicans left.” Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) conspicuously dodged questions about the Cox case on Tuesday, despite the fact that both are fierce abortion opponents. Cornyn said only “I’m not a state official, so I’m not going to comment on what state officials are doing. I’m happy to comment on anything that I’m responsible for,” a near-olympic-level refusal to lie in the bed he and his anti-choice compatriots have made. Both Senators have enthusiastically supported their state’s ultra-strict abortion laws in the past.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case from the Biden administration to preserve access to the abortion pill, an appeal of an August decision from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that would curb how mifepristone is delivered and distributed.
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A quick reminder that if you want your Crooked merch to arrive in time for the holidays, make sure to put in your order by TODAY! Head to crooked.com/store to shop now and pick up an indictment ornament for that festive person in your life.
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Hunter Biden risked being held in contempt of Congress on Wednesday when he refused to sit for a closed-door testimony, after his request to testify publicly was denied. The younger Biden showed up on the steps of the United States Capitol and gave a press conference, saying: “I’m here today to make sure the House committee’s illegitimate investigations of my family do not proceed on distortions, manipulated evidence, and lies. I’m here today to acknowledge I have made mistakes in my life, and wasted opportunities and privileges I was afforded. For that, I am responsible. For that, I am accountable. And for that, I am making amends.” But, he continued, he was also there to “correct how the MAGA-right has portrayed me for their political purposes.”
Meanwhile, the GOP-led House voted to formalize its yearlong sham impeachment inquiry that even some Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) admitted has produced no evidence. President Biden released an official statement on the matter, excoriating those leading the impeachment inquiry. “Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies. Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.”
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Senate Democrats are calling on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from ruling on disgraced former president Donald Trump’s presidential immunity case related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Thomas’s wife, Ginni, was an outspoken proponent of the Big Lie and in near constant contact with Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows in the days following the election.
The Biden campaign is targeting Latino voters, who have increasingly turned away from the president, with a new campaign ad comparing Trump to Latin American strongmen Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro. Trump recently told Fox News blowhard Sean Hannity that he’d be a dictator for “one day” if reelected.
The Biden administration signaled on Tuesday that it would be willing to support significantly harsher immigration measures—such as giving border agents the authority to expel migrants without asylum screenings as well as a dramatic expansion of detentions and deportations—in exchange for GOP support for sending additional aid to Ukraine.
Dozens of protestors from the Jewish-American peace group IfNotNow shut down the 110 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles for over an hour on Wednesday morning calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The far-right party of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni organized a political event in Rome on Saturday that will be attended by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Worst Guy We Know, nightmare billionaire Elon Musk. Meloni and Sunak have bonded over their deranged hatred of migrants, how sweet!
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (known as COP28) came to an agreement to explicitly recommend “transitioning away from fossil fuels.” It’s a big ole’ DUH considering the conclusiveness of the science, but significant nonetheless, especially given the conference’s location this year in the UAE, a major oil producer. Still, many island nations, who have seen some of the worst effects of climate change in their backyards, said they felt excluded, and that the actual strategies to divest from fossil fuels were hazy and did not go far enough.
Speaking of Elon! Tesla recalled more than two million cars on Tuesday over flaws in its autopilot software. The business genius strikes again!
Disgraced former GOP Representative George Santos said he wants to go back to Congress. The grift never sleeps!
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Apple announced that it now requires a judge-ordered warrant to hand over customer data information related to push notifications to law enforcement, putting the company policy in line with their rival Google.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied to an all-time high today after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady and opened the door to rate cuts next year, in a sign inflation has improved more quickly than anticipated. Bidenomics sucks!
An appeals court rejected disgraced former president Donald Trump’s claim that presidential immunity should shield him from the defamation lawsuit brought by New York writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 90’s. He was found liable earlier this year.
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