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Attorney General Merrick Garland is hinting he’s ready to get tough on states that block access to an FDA-approved pill used to terminate pregnancies. He’s got a lot of work ahead of him. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not protect the right to an abortion, overruling the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. In response, the Justice Department declared that it will “work tirelessly to protect and advance reproductive freedom.” Namely, it warned that states can’t restrict access to mifepristone, a drug approved by the FDA in 2000 to terminate pregnancies. (Florko, 6/24)

Immediately following the ruling, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department will protect the right to an abortion, including medication abortion. “We stand ready to work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care,” Garland said in a statement. “In particular, the [Food and Drug Administration] FDA has approved the use of the medication Mifepristone. States may not ban Mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about its safety and efficacy,” Garland said. (Weixel, 6/24)

In the hours after the Supreme Court released its decision overturning the legal right to abortion in the United States, nearly 100 requests for appointments flowed into Just the Pill, a nonprofit organization that arranges for patients to obtain abortion pills in several states. That was about four times the usual daily number of appointment requests for the organization, and many came from patients in Texas and other states that quickly halted abortions after the court ruling. (Belluck, 6/26)

With Roe's fall expected to lead to abortion being banned in about half the states, a petition launched by Allison Fine, the former chair of the national board of NARAL: Pro-Choice America Foundation, calling on the FDA to lift barriers to accessing the drugs. (Rahman, 6/26)

Following the Supreme Court's upheaval of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that states cannot ban the abortion medication mifepristone. "And we stand ready to work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care," he wrote. "In particular, the FDA has approved the use of the medication Mifepristone. States may not ban Mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about its safety and efficacy," Garland stated. (Musto, 6/25)

Dr. Nancy Klimas has spent the better part of her three-decade research career trying to find a cure for Gulf War illness. Military veterans with the unusual, unexplained illness  — which affects some 300,000 U.S. service members who fought in the 1991 Operation Desert Storm — suffer from a range of symptoms, including constant aches and pains, trouble concentrating, fatigue, respiratory issues and irritable bowel syndrome, all understood to stem from exposure to neurotoxic chemicals during combat. Apart from symptom management — which she says is really just “chasing the tail of the dog” — there’s no treatment for Gulf War illness. And the clock is ticking: According to Klimas, director of the Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, the condition could turn into severe neurodegenerative disease if left untreated. (Hopkins, 6/25)