This morning, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion throwing out a challenge to federal approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, thus keeping the drug on the market – and one vulnerable House Republican from New Jersey, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), is saying the court made the right call.
“Today’s unanimous SCOTUS ruling appropriately leaves decisions of reproductive health to elected state legislatures,” said Kean, who represents the most competitive district in New Jersey and who has called himself “pro-choice” in the past.
The court’s decision, though, leaves in place the abortion bans and restrictions that are prevalent in many Republican-led states – perhaps prompting Kean’s comment that decisions about mifepristone should be left to “elected state legislatures.” Kean’s Democratic opponent in this November’s general election, Sue Altman, agreed with Kean that the decision was the right one but said that much more needs to be done to protect abortion access across the nation, even in conservative states.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold access to abortion medication is a critical victory for reproductive rights,” Altman said on Twitter this morning. “It’s also a clear reminder of the ongoing all-out assault on these fundamental rights. Codifying these protections at the federal level is paramount for the protection of women in NJ and across the nation and why we must #FlipNJ7.”
“Decisions of reproductive health belong between women and their doctors, not ‘elected state legislatures,’” she added later in response to Kean’s comments.
The ruling was likewise celebrated by most Democrats in New Jersey’s congressional delegation, as well as by Gov. Phil Murphy, who all said they were relieved that mifepristone would remain available nationwide. But they also noted that, given the current Supreme Court’s past hostility to abortion, the fight is far from over.
“As we saw with the Dobbs decision, this Court has no remorse when it comes to rolling back freedoms that have existed for decades,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) said. “We can not rely on the Supreme Court to protect our civil rights and liberties as we once could. While we can breathe a sigh of relief for now, we must take action at the federal level to protect access to medication abortion, contraception, and medical care for people who need it.”
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) went a step further, creating a toolkit for local Democrats in New Jersey with facts about the ruling and a guide for how to respond. Sherrill also pointed to her End Judge Shopping Act, which would prevent the “judge shopping” that allowed anti-mifepristone activists to file their original case in a Texas district that guaranteed it would be heard by a sympathetic judge.
“This case should have never made it to the Supreme Court in the first place,” Sherrill said. “Anti-abortion extremists have used a tactic called ‘judge shopping’ to cherry pick outcomes by appearing in lower courts in front of their favorite MAGA Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. Congress must address this glaring loophole in our legal system by passing my End Judge Shopping Act so our courts are no longer used to drive a far right political agenda.”
This story was updated at 8:25 p.m. with further comment from Altman.