White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reminded us during Monday's press briefing that the Biden administration has very little to offer on the abortion issue other than repeating their talking points.
The briefing was the first since two different district court judges handed down separate, conflicting opinions on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of mifepristone as part of an abortion method in 2000. Gaining particular attention is Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s decision finding that the FDA violated federal standards when approving mifepristone. Also on Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to pause the ruling.
Jean-Pierre approached the issue even before taking questions, further highlighting the administration's focus. "If the decision stands, it will put women’s health at risk and undermine the FDA’s ability to ensure patients have access to safe and effective medications when they need them the most," Jean-Pierre claimed. While she offered that mifepristone is used for other purposes, she still kept bringing it back to abortion.
The press secretary claimed that the "decision further strips away Americans' fundamental freedoms and interferes with a woman’s ability to make decisions about her own body," adding "it’s another step towards the ultimate goal that we’ve heard over and over again from anti-choice officials that both the state and--at the both the state and national level: eliminating access to abortion for all women in every state."
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Jean-Pierre also referenced the stay requested by the DOJ and offered that the Biden administration "stands by the FDA" and "is prepared... for this legal fight," also issue a rallying cry about how they "will continue our work to protect reproductive rights to ensure that women can make their own decisions about their own bodies without government interfering."
Upon taking questions from reporters on the issue, a consistent question was whether the administration was going to follow the binding decision, or merely ignore it, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) had called for, whom a reporter mentioned by name with her question.
While she answered that the administration will follow the binding decision, Jean-Pierre also emphasized how they "understand the frustration" and that them being "prepared to have a legal--a long legal fight here" was their "commitment to women out there" and their "commitment to Americans across the country."
KJP breaks with progressives like @AOC who insist that the Biden administration ignore the ruling of a federal judge in Texas. pic.twitter.com/Pj2HlbcExp
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 10, 2023
Jean-Pierre also added some premature overconfidence to the mix. When asked earlier in the press briefing "how do you plan to respond to the abortion ruling," beyond the stay, Jean-Pierre mentioned the U.S. Supreme Court, and that "we feel pretty confident that we’re going to win."
It went unmentioned that the Court, which Democrats have constantly railed against, has a 6-3 majority in favor of conservatives, which may dampen Jean-Pierre's confidence.
Towards the end of the press briefing, Jean-Pierre was answering so many questions on the issue that she even had a slip of the tongue, referring to the issue as a decision for men to be making with their doctor's before correcting herself.
KJP: "Reproductive rights...is a medical decision that should be made between a man—a woman, pardon me, and her doctor." pic.twitter.com/NxUALqtk44
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 10, 2023
Not a slip of the tongue, though, was how Jean-Pierre used the cliche talking point of how "reproductive rights is a fundamental freedom," as well as to relitigate last year's midterms where Democrats performed better than expected, though Republicans still won control of the House. "A vast majority of Americans agree with us. We saw the outcomes of the midterms," Jean-Pierre claimed. As Madeline highlighted earlier, though, polling shows Americans do not think the pill was vetted carefully enough.
Jean-Pierre also reminded how the Biden administration ties this to the bigger picture of constantly promoting abortion. When warning about how state lawmakers have considered pro-life bills, the press secretary pointed out that "what we have done is we’re coordinating with state leaders who are fighting to protect reproductive rights," promising "we’ll continue to do that as we’re going through this fight."
For all of her promotion of this abortion method, Jean-Pierre stuck to the administration's one-sided view. In reality, this method is more dangerous than surgical abortion and carries with it numerous side effects, including an incomplete abortion. The FDA also appears to have a pattern of dangerous behavior, as it did not properly look to studies showing averse effects from the method.
In November of 2021, the Charlotte Lozier (CLI) Institute released a peer reviewed journal that showed emergency room visits went up 507 percent between 2002 and 2015 following this method, and that 60 percent of visits were incorrectly attributed to miscarriages.
The chemical abortion pill has become the most common abortion method, leading abortion numbers to actually increase, based on data from the Guttmacher Institute.
Such a theme of being able to provide the press with very little, if anything at all, was also evident through her answers on President Joe Biden taking questions from the press and how there still remains to be an update on when he will be going to East Palestine, Ohio, after the train derailment from February.
REPORTER: "Is the administration trying to protect the president from our questions?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 10, 2023
KJP: "Absolutely not."
REPORTER: "So why the lack of any interaction in a formal setting to have a press conference?"
KJP: "The president takes shouted questions." pic.twitter.com/WlqgNWL6ZE
REPORTER: "President Biden said that he'd be going to East Palestine, Ohio at some point..."
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 10, 2023
KJP: "The president said it. He keeps to his word. I don't have a trip to lay out..." pic.twitter.com/pAd41QsrQR
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