Access to the abortion drug mifepristone will remain unchanged in the US for now after a federal district judge on Sunday paused a lawsuit aimed at overturning the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the medication. But he left the…
Page A3From§Eachthe early evening edition — 31 August 2026
Courts block Trump's mail-ballot order, keep abortion pill legal, as he rushes FDA nominee before midterms
As it ran on the front
Sorry, sorry, one second, I had this written down somewhere. Here, yeah, here it is. Three things, all from the same week. A judge denying the administration's bid to lift the block on the mail-ballot order. A court letting the abortion pill stay available while the FDA finishes what somebody's calling a review. And the President telling the Senate, in so many words, confirm my FDA nominee before the midterms.
Now, I keep coming back to that phrase. 'Before the midterms.' Not before the fiscal year ends, not before the review's done, before the midterms. I wrote it down twice, actually, because I wanted to make sure I had it right the first time.…
…(cont) I did this thing at home last week, my wife thinks I've lost it, I took two jars, put a lid on one, left the other open, and asked her which one she figured would empty out faster. She said the open one, obviously, said it like I was slow. And I said, right, but what if somebody's real motivated to get the lid off before a certain date?
Because here's what I've got, and maybe you can help me out, a court says the FDA's abortion pill review has to run its course, that's the block, that's the lid. And on the same page, a push to install a new FDA nominee, the guy who'd be sitting on top of that same review, with a hard deadline attached, the midterms. I'm not saying those two things are related. I'm a notebook guy, I just write down what's in front of me.
Same for the mail ballots, a judge tells the administration no, twice now, can't lift the block. I don't have anything else on that one, that's just a straight no, I'll admit it doesn't fit my little jar theory, I'm still working on it.
So, excuse me, one more thing before you go, because it's been bugging me, if the review's supposed to run on its own timeline, independent, no politics in it, why's the deadline for confirming the man in charge of it the exact same deadline as the election?
I'll let you get going. I just, that's the part I can't get the lid back on.
“Notice the order of operations, the courts keep telling him no on the mail ballots, no on yanking the abortion pill, so what's the move? Ram a guy through the FDA before anybody can vote in November. You lose in the courtroom, you win by stacking the agency that's supposed to referee the next fight.”
“The administration respects the judiciary, obviously, that's why we're appealing, I mean complying, we're complying. And the FDA nominee has nothing to do with the abortion pill review, that's a totally separate, okay, it's the same review, but the timing's a coincidence, before the midterms is just when Senate schedules happen to work.”
The receipts
President Donald Trump said Monday that he wants the Senate to prioritize confirming Dr. Heidi Overton, his nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, before the 2026 midterm elections, in which Republicans are defending a slim…
A federal judge on Monday denied requests from the Trump administration and Republican-led states to lift a temporary block on key parts of a U.S. Postal Service rule implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order intended to secure…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.