Washington, DC — Republican AGs are at it again with their latest attack on abortion access. Three GOP AGs made a last-ditch effort to intervene in a case surrounding access to the abortion mifepristone, Susan Rinkunas reports for Slate. “On the eve of this month’s off-year elections, the top lawyers in three states threw something of a Hail Mary pass: They went to the courtroom of one of the most notorious Trump judges in the country and asked to join the lawsuit that could revoke FDA approval of the abortion pill, mifepristone.”

The article continues, “That fact may explain why, on Friday, Nov. 3, the Republican attorneys general from Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho filed a motion to intervene in Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s court, claiming their states are also being injured by the approval of the abortion pill back in 2000. These Republican AGs are swooping in to join the case at the eleventh hour, and it certainly looks like they’re worried about SCOTUS ruling against the plaintiffs, doctors from the shadowy Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.” 

“Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, and a historian of the U.S. abortion fight, agreed that it appears that the [GOP] AGs are trying to beef up weak standing claims, but noted that joining this late also has the neat side effect of possibly pushing the case into next year’s term, well after the presidential election.”

“Delaying the proceedings would be a benefit for people who ‘think that the Supreme Court is more likely to side with you not in an election year.’ In other words, the Supreme Court would receive massive public blowback that would hurt the Republican Party’s political chances in 2024 if it issued a ruling banning or restricting mifepristone prior to the election, but that risk is mitigated by delay.”

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