US Supreme Court Halts Texas District Court Ruling on Mifepristone, Appeal Proceeds

US Supreme Court Halts Texas District Court Ruling on Mifepristone, Appeal Proceeds

Today’s order halted both the Texas District decision and the procedural appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

For now, the abortion pill mifepristone will remain widely available, but it has a court date of May 17th for oral arguments.

Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington called the ruling a “half step in the right direction.” Washington is among the states stockpiling mifepristone — an estimated four-year-supply. “This dubious challenge to the availability of a safe medication never should have gone as far as it has, and it must be rejected entirely,” he said Friday.

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Supreme Court Issues Stay On Texas Mifepristone Decision | Responses Due Tuesday

Supreme Court Issues Stay On Texas Mifepristone Decision | Responses Due Tuesday

On Friday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay on the Texas court ruling concerning the abortion medication mifepristone. This came after the Justice Department announced on Thursday that it would seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court to defend the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of the pill and protect Americans' access to safe and effective reproductive care.

Justice Samuel Alito signed the order asking both sides to file briefs by Tuesday over which parts of U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s April 7 Amarillo, Texas ruling should be left standing — if any — while the court considers the case.

In addition to the Biden Administration, New York-based Danco Laboratories, the maker of the pill, asked the justices to intervene.

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Tom Ford's Edgy Spring 2023 Campaign by Steven Klein Probes Deep, Sexy Questions

Tom Ford's Edgy Spring 2023 Campaign by Steven Klein Probes Deep, Sexy Questions

Designer Tom Ford was among the 150 newcomers to the annual Forbes list of the world’s richest people released last week. The 61-year-old with a deep understanding of human sexuality — and women’s sexuality in particular — entered the list with LeBron James. That’s kind of cool.

The first time Moore met Ford, she was nominated for an Oscar and had checked into the Beverly Hills Hotel with her two-month old baby. “I wasn’t really in Tom Ford shape,” the actor told Vogue. “The first thing Tom did was pick up my little boy—who’s now 21—and said, ‘I want one of these.’”

There are many layers to Tom Ford and these layers drift through every element of his work and life.

Signing a one-year-contract last November with Estee Lauder, agreeing to stay with the brand as Lauder digests their big-leagues’ purchase, it’s very Tom Ford to get edgy on his way out the door in this Spring 2023 campaign film. It’s equally edgy to have Steven Klein behind the lens, creating this tableau of subtle, erotic tension and beauty that provokes questions.

Models for the Tom Ford Spring 2023 Campaign include Akbar Shamji, Annemary Aderibigbe, Felice Noordhoff and He Cong styled by Carine Roitfeld. K Studio acted as Creative Director./ Hair by Jawara; makeup by Yadim

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American Women Ensnared in Dueling US District Court Mifepristone Rulings

American Women Ensnared in Dueling US District Court Mifepristone Rulings

On Sunday, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on CNN’s “State of the Union” said that not only is the Texas ruling unlawful, but it threatens the entire process of FDA drug approval.

“First and foremost, when you turn upside down the entire FDA approval process, you’re not talking about just mifepristone,” he said. “You’re talking about every kind of drug. You’re talking about our vaccines, you’re talking about insulin, you’re talking about the new Alzheimer’s drugs that may come on.”

Many exciting new drugs involve stem-cell research, and the Catholic Church already raised ethical objections to promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are manufactured using cells derived from human fetuses electively aborted decades ago.

Will the Catholic Church and MAGA crowd sue in Texas to take all drugs off the market derived from human fetus stem cells? Because the list of new drugs coming out of the COVID vaccine epidemic research is breathtaking. We’re talking cancer vaccines.

Meanwhile, the drug Mifeprex [Mifepristone] is so safe that deaths associated with taking Viagra are 10x the number associated with Mifepristone.

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Michelle Laff in Demonic Witchcraft by Txema Yeste for Numéro France 237

Michelle Laff in Demonic Witchcraft by Txema Yeste for Numéro France 237

Model Michelle Laff is styled by Bernat Buscato in ‘Sortilège’, the fashion story of a ruthless vampire who wrecks destruction in the March 2023 pages of Numéro France 237. / Hair and makeup by Ruben Marmol

Photographer Txema Yeste [IG] captures the tale of a modern day female vampire, generally regarded as Lilith in early Biblical texts.

Among feminists and Medieval folklorists, Lilith is Adam’s first wife, who represents the pre-existing power of the female goddesses and more empowered females.

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In Most Critical 2023 US Election Liberals, aka Democrats, Win Wisconsin Supreme Court by Wide Margin

In Most Critical 2023 US Election Liberals, aka Democrats, Win Wisconsin Supreme Court by Wide Margin

Anne of Carversville backed and helped fund the April 4, 2023 victory of Janet Protasiewicz over the uber-conservative, 2020 presidential election-overturning candidate Dan Kelly for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

With 69% of the vote in, the proud liberal has 56% of the vote vs 44% for Kelly. The race became the most expensive state Supreme Court race in US history. Protasiewicz, a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, was elected for a 10-year term.

The new court will determine the fate of abortion rights, the most gerrymandered state political maps in America and a range of voting rights issues in the battleground state for two years, including the 2024 presidential election.

Kelly lost his seat on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court in 2020 to liberal Jill Karofsky after advising Republicans on legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential race through the use of “fake electors.” Democrats from across America sent groundbreaking sums of money to support Protasiewicz, who was relentless in her attacks against Kelly for trying to overturn the 2020 results.

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Walgreens CEO Brewer Hired Gov. Newsom's Former Chief of Staff to Negotiate Abortion Pills

Walgreens CEO Brewer Hired Gov. Newsom's Former Chief of Staff to Negotiate Abortion Pills

Politico did what good journalists do on an important story. They dug deeply and late Monday, Christopher Cadelago sprung a humdinger of a piece of news about events surrounding California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ire and staff negotiations with Walgreens over their front of the pack capitulation to the demands of red state AGs around the distribution of abortion pills.

Now the governor may be a forgiving kind of guy, but the first thought that went through my mind reading the post was “that’s one hell of a bridge to burn”, especially as the darling not only of Governor Newsom but also as a senior policy adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Meet Ann O’Leary, Former Chief of Staff to Gavin Newsom

I speak of the lawyer on the phone with Newsom’s inner circle staff, as a lead representative for Walgreens: Ann O’Leary, the governor’s first chief of staff and now a partner in the law firm Jenner & Block.

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California Cancels May 2023 Renewal of Walgreens Prison System Pharma Contract

California Cancels May 2023 Renewal of Walgreens Prison System Pharma Contract

In the first step of an “exhaustive review” of all contracts between Walgreens and the state of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that California will not renew a $54 million contract by which Walgreens delivers pharmacy services to inmates in California’s prison system. The contract was set to renew on May 1, 2023.

“This is an attempt to call the question ‘Which side are you on? Whose side are you on?” Newsom said in an interview with POLITICO ahead of the announcement. “Are you going to just cower in the face of bullies? Are you going to just roll over?”

When Walgreens, now led by former Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer, stepped out solo over the weekend, saying that her pharmacies would abide by demand letters from red state attorneys generals that they agree not to sell mifepristone — even in red states where abortion is legal — AOC called the action a major mistake.

Anticipating severe backlash should have been a high priority for Brewer — especially when Walgreens was agreeing to anti-women demands going beyond what their state abortion laws now require.

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Five Women, Two Doctors Sue Texas SB8 Law, Seeking 'Medical Emergency' Definition

Five Women, Two Doctors Sue Texas SB8 Law, Seeking 'Medical Emergency' Definition

Five women who were denied abortions in Texas have filed a lawsuit against the state. Two doctors are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit, believed to be the first action brought on behalf of women denied abortions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The plaintiffs, who are represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, say they were denied abortions under Texas state law SB8 despite medically-verified, significant risks to themselves and/or their severely impaired fetuses that made abortion a medical necessity.

‘Medical Emergency’ Must Be Defined

The lawsuit asks the court for clarity on what situations fall under the “medical emergency” exception in Texas’ abortion ban.

"With the threat of losing their medical licenses, fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and up to 99 years in prison lingering over their heads, it is no wonder that doctors and hospitals are turning patients away—even patients in medical emergencies," the suit reads.

At the time the SB8 law was written, groups such as the Texas Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists expressed grave concerns, arguing that the proposed law was too vague to provide physicians with assurances they would not face legal consequences for carrying out their maternal health, caregiver duties.

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Harvey Weinstein Jane Doe #1 Goes Public in LA After Guilty Rape Verdict

Harvey Weinstein Jane Doe #1 Goes Public in LA After Guilty Rape Verdict

Evgeniya Chernyshova, a former model and actor, has spoken publicly for the first time about her violent sexual assault by disgraced Hollywood heavyweight Harvey Weinstein. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Chernyshova spoke about her violent encounter with Weinstein in 2013 at the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival and her decision to come forward at the urging of her daughter.

Chernyshova was the first witness called in Weinstein's Los Angeles trial last year 2022. Her testimony persuaded the jury to convict Weinstein on three charges of rape and sexual assault including forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and penetration by foreign object.

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Could Walgreens Big Bow to Red States Demands on Abortion Pills Backfire? We Hope So!

Could Walgreens Big Bow to Red States Demands on Abortion Pills Backfire? We Hope So!

When Detroit native Rosalind ‘Roz’ Brewer left her position as COO at Starbucks in January 2021 to become the CEO of the Walgreens Boots Alliance, her appointment was hailed.

‘Roz’ Brewer was the first and only African American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. And her credentials were stellar.

Fast forward two years, and Brewer is now the first CEO to bow to the demands of red-state attorneys general that drug store chains like CVS and Walgreens not sell abortion pills under new rules released by the FDA.

Brewer is also eyeing Medicare Advantage plans as her source of new and significantly more stable Walgreens income. Is she assuming that the Biden Administration won’t find ways to penalize Walgreens for so easily and quickly cutting off access to abortion pills to American women desperate to find them?

What happens if CVS decides not to honor the red states demands and fights for women’s access to abortion care in states where it remains legal, even if it is tied up in the courts?

Brewer can’t possibly believe that her Medicare Advantage Plan grandmothers won’t penalize Walgreen’s and favor CVS, if the larger and more profitable CVS decides to at least fight for their granddaughters’ access to abortion pills.

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'Urgency' is Anderson Clayton's Middle Name As NC Democratic Party Gets New Leaders

'Urgency' is Anderson Clayton's Middle Name As NC Democratic Party Gets New Leaders

Until this week, the best news about the future of North Carolina Democrats was the development of a future Apple campus in Durham, the fourth largest city in the state. Next came confirmation that fellow digital-world goliath Meta [parent to Facebook and Instagram] would also be locating a major office complex in Durham.

The city of 300,000 people is expected to double in size in the next 25 years, generating high hopes for Democrats that North Carolina will become a more progressive state politically.

Future Is Now and It’s Younger

That future reality met today with the February 2023 ouster of Democratic North Carolina state party chair Bobbie Richardson, running for her second term, replaced by 25-year-old Anderson Clayton to guide them through the upcoming 2024 election. Note that both ‘Bobbie’ and ‘Anderson’ are women.

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Max Mara Spring 2023 Collection with Adut, Annemary, Dara by Ethan James Green

Max Mara Spring 2023 Collection with Adut, Annemary, Dara by Ethan James Green

Max Mara’s Spring-Summer 2023 campaign has sophisticated swagger. Models trio Adut Akech, Annemary Aderibigbe and Dara Allen step it up to remind us that they are far more than muses or mannequins. Fashion editor Tonne Goodman styles the shoot — a collection of sophisticated essentials with discreet details that she herself would wear — in images photographed by Ethan James Green.

Looking at the images immediately took me back to December 2018, when former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi exited a tough meeting with then president Donald Trump.

The shot of Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer leaving a hard-as-nails meeting with Trump went viral, generating such digital heat that Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths responded that the coat would be reissued.

AOC has always liked Ian Griffiths because he’s a male designer willing to explore his own contradictions. He does just that in speaking about the 2023 campaign inspired by the French Riviera. Griffiths has not been caught up in trying to make women ‘its’ or ‘theys’, degendering us in such a way that the very concept of women’s rights is no longer necessary. We’re all humans, no need to discuss the failure of mostly — but not exclusively — men to acknowledge women’s inequality.

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Etro Unveils 'Eden of Etropia' Spring 2023 Campaign Lensed by Zhong Lin

Etro Unveils 'Eden of Etropia' Spring 2023 Campaign Lensed by Zhong Lin

Etro unveils ‘Eden of Etropia’, the first campaign for new creative director Marco De Vincenzo celebrating the spring 2023 collection.

Not only is the campaign beautiful on a visceral level. It drives a dagger [literally in the video] into the apple and a search for the truth of women’s identity.

Inspired by the paintings and portraits of the Pre-Raphaelites, Marco De Vincenzo communicates his poetic vision, creating a new paradise centered around the apple, the iconic fruit of the collection and a potent symbol of love, seduction and eternity.

That’s great copy. But the truth is also that the word ‘malus’ besides being Latin for ‘apple’ is also a very negative word associated with bad, evil and wicked. From a religious perspective the apple reference with Eve didn’t even appear in versions of the New Testament until 500 AD.

I wrote about this discovery after watching a PBS show ‘Mysteries of the Garden of Eden’, first released in 2007. The documentary will be purchased before sundown at whatever price.

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Levi Strauss & Co Partners with Pakistan's Artistic Milliners Organic Cotton Production

Levi Strauss & Co Partners with Pakistan's Artistic Milliners Organic Cotton Production

Denim giant Levi Strauss & Co is now sourcing organic cotton directly from farmers in Pakistan as part of its membership of the Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) initiative.

Levi's is sourcing the organic cotton through Pakistan-based denim mill Artistic Milliners' Organic programme which involves 2,000 cotton farmers in the Kohlu region of Baluchistan.

The vast majority of cotton farmers and pickers are women, and the focus of Artistic Milliners is female empowerment. Founded in 1949 with a small factory of 22 women, the company now has a workforce of 18,000 employeess.

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Activists Anya Taylor-Joy, Yara Shahidi Dior Forever Foundation Campaign 2023

Activists Anya Taylor-Joy, Yara Shahidi Dior Forever Foundation Campaign 2023

“Black-ish” and spinoff “Grown-ish” actor Yara Shahidi has exciting news. She will be joining American Ballet Theater principal ballet dancer Misty Copeland in Abu Dhabi for the Know Your Value and Forbes Magazine second annual 2023 Forbes 30/50 Summit, running concurrently with International Women’s Day from March 7-10.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is headlining the 2023 Forbes 30/50 Summit, that is organized by Huma Abedin, vice chair of the 30/50 Summit, along with Forbes editor Maggie McGrath and “Morning Joe” co-host, and founder of Know Your Value Mika Brzezinski.

Anya Taylor-Joy was named to the Forbes Europe 30 Under 30 List in 2019. She was honored last November by Harper’s Bazaar UK in their 2022 Women of the Year Awards.

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Dior Beauty Mitzah Collection, Simone de Beauvoir and Animal Prints: Tensions in Women's History

Dior Beauty Mitzah Collection, Simone de Beauvoir and Animal Prints: Tensions in Women's History

No one has been more committed to use her fashion shows platform to tell women’s stories than Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Dior ambassador Anya Taylor-Joy has a life-long passion and fascination with animals. The star adores animal prints, making her the perfect face for Dior Beauty’s Dior Mitzah collection.

Christian Dior’s original muse Mitzah Bricard inspired him to recognize the leopard print as a reputable trend.

Mitzah’s advice was: “When a man wants to send you flowers, always say — ‘my florist is Cartier.’” “Madame Bricard is one of the rare people for whom elegance is their sole reason for living,” wrote Dior.

Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’ was published in 1949, when the French existentialist philosopher, social theorist and feminist activist was age 41.

The lifelong partner and lover of Jean Paul Sartre wrote a piece for Vogue in 1947, arguing that “Femininity is a Trap”. Dior’s Chiuri used the 1947 statement in her Pre-Fall 2022 show.

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Raquel Zimmermann by Ancestral Voices in Robin Galiegue Images for TTA21

Raquel Zimmermann by Ancestral Voices in Robin Galiegue Images for TTA21

Top model and ceramic artist Raquel Zimmermann is a fashion and culture focus for The Travel Almanac FW2022 issue. Clare Byrne styles the restrained, modest fashion silhouettes with Bottega Veneta on the cover.

The organic sensuality of Raquel Zimmermann’s ceramics is almost visceral to AOC eyes. There are artists and talents who are very focused on outward visualization, while others channel the unconscious mind and ancestral voices, compelled to go deeper into the human experience in a universal way.

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Jessica Chastain in 'The Good Fight' Lensed by Jessica Chou for Marie Claire Holiday

Jessica Chastain in 'The Good Fight' Lensed by Jessica Chou for Marie Claire Holiday

With her own company behind the Showtime miniseries ‘George & Tammy’, out now, Chastain was determined to give her “Stand By Your Man’ country singer “main character energy.”

The actor takes issue with the idea that Tammy Wynette was a doormat, reminding us that Wynette was married five times.

The male character of George Jones is played by Michael Shannon, who has an excellent relationship with Chastain.

As scripted, the scene went something like:

DON (picture a pencil neck with an ego): You're going to fuck my wife, aren't you, George?

GEORGE (Michael Shannon): Yes, I'm going to fuck her.

"[Michael] changed the line from, 'Yes, I'm going to fuck her'—excuse the language—to, 'I sure would like to," Chastain remembers. "The second he said, 'I sure would like to,' it was like, 'Oh, yes, this is happening. Because he sees her as someone who gets to make the decision. And that's working with an actor who's very aware he doesn't own me." Another perk of being producer? You get to pick your scenemates. "We were so in tune with one another," says Shannon, who first met Chastain on the set of 2011's Take Shelter. "The notion of sitting in front of another man and looking at a woman and proclaiming that you're going to fuck her, seems a little neanderthal to me. I mean, if I was the woman in question, I wouldn't enjoy that so much."

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Benjamin Franklin's Abortion Recipe Math Book Would Be Banned in Today's Red America

Benjamin Franklin's Abortion Recipe Math Book Would Be Banned in Today's Red America

For my international friends, Benjamin Franklin was an original drafter and signatory of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The French adored him.

AOC is not making a joke of Benjamin Franklin’s beliefs. But to be lied to day after day by the pro-birthers, that abortion was not widely-practiced and legal in America insults our intelligence.

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