Democratic and leftist groups are gaming out how to resist and prepare for former President Trump’s possible return to the White House, including blue state governors stockpiling abortion pills.
The Supreme Court ruled against a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) regulatory approval process of the abortion drug Mifepristone, but some Democratic Party leaders are reportedly preparing for a hypothetical scenario where the Trump administration rescinds the approval or uses the 1873 Comstock Act to criminalize mailing Mifepristone across state lines.
"The Democratic governor of Washington State, Jay Inslee, said he had secured a large enough supply of Mifepristone pills to preserve access for women in his state through a second Trump administration. The supply is locked away at a state warehouse," The New York Times reported in a piece headlined "The Resistance to a New Trump Administration Has Already Started."
Inslee is not alone, according to The Times, he is "one of at least five Democratic governors who have established stockpiles of Mifepristone to guard against the possibility of any Trump administration using federal power to stop its interstate distribution. The others are the governors of California, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon."
"We have it physically in the state of Washington, which could stop him and his anti-choice forces from prohibiting its distribution," Inslee told The Times. "It has a life span of five or six years. If there was another Trump administration, it’ll get us through."
Inslee’s aides argued that the FDA agency itself could rescind its approval of the pills, in which case they would argue that the FDA lacks authority to restrict usage of the stockpiles of pills already existing in various states, provided they don’t cross state lines.
In April, Trump said he supported leaving abortion to the states and the will of the people to decide. He had previously expressed support for a 15-week abortion limit. Mifepristone can be used to abort up to 10 weeks. He has not specifically commented about the abortion pill.
Aside from abortion pills, leftist groups are preparing to fight Trump on a variety of issues on the legal front.
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One liberal resistance group, Democracy Forward, "has developed a 15-page threat matrix that covers issues including abortion, health care, climate, civil rights, environmental protections, immigration and the 'weaponization of government.'" They have even "begun recruiting sympathetic plaintiffs who would have legal standing in court," according to The Times.
While not wanting to publicly signal a lack of confidence in Biden's campaign, The Times reported leftist groups' "angst is intensified by Mr. Biden’s low approval numbers and by his persistent trailing of Mr. Trump in polls of the states that are likely to decide the election."
