Tangle - Louisiana's abortion pill law.

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

Louisiana’s abortion pill law. Last Friday, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry (R) signed a bill classifying two abortion-inducing medications as controlled substances whose possession without a prescri...ption will be punishable by 1-5 years in prison. The measure applies to mifepristone and misoprostol, the drugs used in medication abortions, and will take effect on October 1. You can find our previous coverage of the Supreme Court arguments over the FDA’s approval and regulation of mifepristone here.You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.In our latest video — my interview with Haviv Gur — I’ve been humbled to find overwhelmingly positive feedback. Click the link and see what everyone is talking about, and leave some of your thoughts too.In episode 3 of our podcast series, The Undecideds, our focus shifts from Donald Trump toward President Joe Biden. Our undecided voters share their observations on the current commander in chief and how his decisions on the world stage affect their decision in the voting booth. You can listen to Episode 3 ⁠⁠here.⁠⁠Today’s clickables: Friday edition preview (1:06), Quick hits (2:49), Today’s story (5:00), Left’s take (8:16), Right’s take (11:57), Isaac’s take (15:55), Listener question (21:14), Under the Radar (24:46), Numbers (25:32), Have a nice day (26:42)You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Take the survey: What do you think of Louisiana’s new law? Let us know!Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.
Starting point is 00:01:00 From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul. Today is Thursday, May 30th. We're headed into the weekend, and we are going to be talking about Louisiana's abortion pill law. A little bit of a light podcast today. Now, this is a big one. It's probably going to be in the news for the next week or two, especially because I think abortion is going to be really central to a lot of what happens across the country leading into the 2024 election in November, which is now just about six months away, almost exactly six months away, in case you were curious. Before we jump into the main topic and I pass it off to John, I want to let you know that tomorrow in our subscribers only Friday edition of the
Starting point is 00:02:12 newsletter, I'm going to be talking about three times in the last few months that I was wrong. Not a newsletter about the best arguments that I'm wrong, even if I'm not totally convinced myself. This is something different. This is, I'm going to talk about three examples of times in the last few months where I had a take in my take. And looking back on it, I think I was just wrong about my position. And I'm going to explain what happened that made me realize I was wrong. And also why I think I got it wrong in the first place. Just a bit of a intellectual experiment looking back at some of our coverage with a critical eye.
Starting point is 00:02:52 So that's coming in tomorrow's Friday edition. If you are a podcast listener and you want to get that, you have to be a member, a paying Tangle member to get Friday and Sunday newsletters. We're not going to release this as a podcast. We have the Sunday podcast that we're recording today, and that'll come out on Sunday, but this will just be in the written form in the newsletter behind the paywall. So if you want to support this podcast, support our work, you can go to readtangle.com forward slash membership, or just go to readtangle.com forward slash membership or just go to readtangle.com and look for the button to become a member and become a member. And then you'll get that email in your inbox tomorrow around noon. All right, with that out of the way, I'm going to pass it off to John,
Starting point is 00:03:35 who's going to break down some quick hits in today's main topic, and I'll be back for my take. my take. Thank you, Isaac, and welcome, everybody. Here are your quick hits for today. First up, President Trump and Elon Musk are speaking several times a month and discussing a potential advisory role for Musk in a second Trump administration, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Number two, Texas Representative Tony Gonzalez narrowly won his primary against gun rights activist and social media celebrity Brendan Herrera by 407 votes. Separately, State House Speaker Dade Phelan also edged out a primary challenger from the right who is backed by former President Donald Trump. Number three, a jury will begin its second day of deliberations in former President
Starting point is 00:04:26 Donald Trump's trial in New York over alleged hush money payments and the falsification of business documents. Number four, in his lengthiest comments yet since a controversy erupted over a pair of flags hung outside his home, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he will not recuse himself from January 6th-related cases. And number five, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a bill that bars people from helping minors get an abortion, receive puberty blockers, or have gender transition surgeries without parental consent. A Louisiana bill reclassifying two abortion pills as controlled and dangerous substances now heads to the desk of the state's governor, where it is expected to be signed into law. The state Senate gave the bill their final approval today.
Starting point is 00:05:20 This passed the House on Tuesday, as we've reported to you. While there is a near-total abortion ban in Louisiana, critics argue this first-of-its-kind bill will make it more difficult to gain access to mifepristone and misopristol for other medical uses. A controversial bill that would restrict access to abortion pills has now been signed into law in Louisiana. The bill reclassifies abortion pills as a controlled substance, grouping it with Xanax and Valium. And possession of the pills without a prescription from a specially licensed doctor could be punishable by up to five years in prison.
Starting point is 00:05:57 Last Friday, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill classifying two abortion-inducing medications as controlled substances whose possession without a prescription will be punishable by one to five years in prison. signed a bill classifying two abortion-inducing medications as controlled substances whose possession without a prescription will be punishable by one to five years in prison. The measure applies to mifepristone and misoprostol, the drugs used in medication abortions, and will take effect on October 1st. In addition to inducing abortions, misoprostol is used to treat miscarriages, prepare patients for endometrial biopsy, and ease IUD insertion. Mifepristone is only used for medication abortions. The bill, SB 276, was introduced by Republican
Starting point is 00:06:32 State Senator Thomas Presley after his sister's husband repeatedly put misoprostol pills into her drinks to try and induce an abortion, for which he was sentenced to 180 days in jail. During the process of revising the bill, Presley added an amendment to also reclassify mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV drugs under the state's Uniform Controlled Substances Law to control the rampant illegal distribution of abortion-inducing drugs. Louisiana banned medical and surgical abortions in 2022, with exceptions for life-threatening pregnancies,
Starting point is 00:07:04 so the new law won't affect abortion access. However, it will create new barriers to obtaining abortion drugs. The bill stipulates that mifepristone and misoprostol be stored in designated facilities and requires doctors in Louisiana to obtain a special license to prescribe the drugs. Those prescriptions will be recorded in a state database accessible to doctors, pharmacists, Louisiana's medical board, and law enforcement agencies with a warrant. The law will only apply to people who have not been prescribed the medication, such as friends of pregnant women, their family, medical providers, and women who are not pregnant but wish to obtain the drugs proactively. Pregnant women who possess the medication for their own use are exempt from criminal prosecution. Pro-life groups celebrated the passage of the bill. Sarah Zagorski, the communications director for Louisiana Right to
Starting point is 00:07:49 Life, praised Presley for his courageous persistence with SB 276 despite numerous attacks from abortion proponents who mischaracterized his legislation. During the legislation's consideration, a group of 200 doctors in Louisiana wrote a letter to Presley criticizing the bill. Mischaracterizing misoprostol, a drug routinely and safely used on labor units throughout the state as a dangerous drug of abuse, creates confusion and misinformation and harms women seeking high-quality maternal care, they wrote. Medication abortions have become prevalent since Roe v. Wade was struck down, accounting for 63% of all U.S. abortions in 2023. In recent years, the Food and Drug Administration scaled back restrictions on
Starting point is 00:08:31 access to mifepristone, removing a requirement that healthcare providers dispense the drugs in person. In turn, women have increasingly sought out abortion drugs by male to circumvent state bans. In March, the Supreme Court heard arguments over the FDA's approval and regulation of mifepristone in a case that could determine access to the drug nationwide. We previously covered that case, and there's a link in today's episode description. Today, we're going to explore arguments from the left and the right about Louisiana's new law, and then Isaac's take. All right, first up, let's start with what the left is saying. The left strongly opposes the bill, saying it's out of step with views on abortion,
Starting point is 00:09:21 even in conservative states. Some say the law has no medical justification. Others suggest it's designed to frighten women and intimidate their support networks who are considering an abortion. The Times-Picayune editorial board said the lawmakers practiced bad medicine. In Louisiana, it seems there's almost no scenario where lawmakers don't feel the need to insert themselves into the conversation between a woman and her doctor, the board wrote. It isn't enough that our state has outlawed abortions in virtually all solutions but the most life-threatening. Many doctors remain unsure if their definition of
Starting point is 00:09:54 life-threatening matches that of the state. Meanwhile, terrified women carrying babies with no chance of survival feel pressed to seek out-of-state care. After getting exactly what they sought out of the Dobbs decision, overturning Roe v. Wade, abortion opponents are still not satisfied, and it's hurting their cause. Louisiana is in the midst of a crisis in maternal and fetal health care. Now isn't the time to give doctors reason to abandon our state, the board said. A majority of Louisiana voters favor loosening restrictions to allow for abortion up to the 15th week of pregnancy.
Starting point is 00:10:27 From the Capitol, however, lawmakers keep prescribing the opposite. In The Guardian, Moira Donegan called the bill cruel and medically senseless. Under both state and federal classifications, the category of controlled substances includes those medications known to cause mind-altering effects and create the potential for addictions such as sedatives and opioids. Abortion medications carry none of this potential for physical dependence, habit-forming, or abuse, Donegan said. Louisiana lawmakers are pursuing this new additional criminalization measure because while abortion bans are very good at generating suffering for women, they are not very good at actually preventing abortions.
Starting point is 00:11:09 The criminalization measure is then part of an expanding horizon of invasive, sadistic, and burdensome state interventions meant to do the impossible, to stop women from trying to control their own lives. The Louisiana bill nominally will not apply to pregnant women. They're exempt from criminal punishments for possession of the medications, but it will take square aim at the vital, heroic efforts of feminists, medical practitioners, and mutual aid networks that have been distributing the pills in Louisiana, the people who have adhered to the principles of bodily autonomy and women's self-determination even amid a hostile climate. In MSNBC, Mary Ziegler wrote about the chilling motive behind the law. The new bill recognizes that existing bans have not been enough to stop the flow of drugs and patients across state lines, and develops new tools to track the use of these critical
Starting point is 00:11:53 medications and frighten anyone who might prescribe them, Ziegler said. Equally important is the bill's creation of a new crime, the possession of these abortion drugs without a prescription. It is indeed to crack down on a group of anti-abortion advocates they have targeted since the reversal of Roe, aiders and abettors. Anti-abortion groups have vowed in the face of dissension from so-called anti-abortion abolitionists not to punish women. Physicians, for their part, often prove unwilling to run the grievous legal risk
Starting point is 00:12:22 involved in violating a criminal ban. That leaves others willing to help patients. This bill gives prosecutors a new tool. If anyone possesses mifepristone or misoprostol without a prescription, it does not matter whether they even perform an abortion, Ziegler wrote. The chilling effect is unlikely to be limited to physicians. Those in a patient support network, the most likely targets of the bill, will be affected.
Starting point is 00:12:56 Alright, that is it for what the left is saying, which brings us to what the right is saying. The right is mixed on the bill, with supporters praising it as a measure of protection for women's health. Some question the logic behind reclassifying Mifepristone and Misoprostol. Others say anti-abortion laws have become increasingly prone to government overreach. In The Federalist, Jordan Boyd criticized Democrats and the media for their freak-out over the bill. Poisoning an expectant mother, especially without her knowledge, the bill notes, substantially increases the pregnant woman's risk of death or serious bodily harm. Mifepristone and Misoprostol together are responsible for a 500% increase in abortion-related emergency room visits for side
Starting point is 00:13:36 effects such as hemorrhage, fast, weak pulse, shortness of breath, diarrhea, dizziness, headache, nausea, or vomiting, pain across the back, arms, neck, and abdomen, a myriad of other risks, and sometimes fatal complications, Boyd wrote. Protecting women and their unborn babies is a proven bipartisan issue that should be uncontroversial. Pro-life laws in Louisiana, even with the introduction and passage of the new apportion pill bill, explicitly exempt pregnant women who have a prescription for the abortifacients from the new fines and jail time, Boyd said. Not even that truth, however, stopped the corporate media from joining the misinformation dogpile. The fear-mongering by abortion activists about the Louisiana bill is a direct attempt to dredge up public contempt for Republicans
Starting point is 00:14:19 who act on voters' wishes about the life in the womb. In hot air, Jazz Shaw said, the bill has problematic elements. Returning these questions to the states was the right thing to do. If the voters of Louisiana do not wish to allow abortions in their state and they elect representatives who impose restrictions, I don't see any problem with it, Shaw wrote. With all that said, however, this approach to dealing with medications like mifepristone and misoprostol seemed problematic to say the least. First of all, under the restrictions that were already passed, if someone were found to have used the drugs in the state, they already would have been violating the law. The act would absolutely qualify as an abortion and should already be covered.
Starting point is 00:14:59 How does the state justify criminalizing the possession of drugs, though? The drugs don't even require a prescription in most cases. They are obviously dangerous, lethal to an unborn baby, but they seem to have been deemed to pose minimal risks to mothers, Shaw said. This all seems to be rather redundant and frankly over the top. It feels as if Louisiana has been watching other states impose restrictions on abortions and decided to say, hold my beer. Classifying these drugs in the same category as potentially addictive narcotics or antidepressants seems to be a serious step too far. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond
Starting point is 00:15:41 Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases
Starting point is 00:16:00 have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Thank you. your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca. In Reason, Elizabeth Nolan Brown wrote, the war on drugs meets abortion. With or without this new crime, there is no reason the state needs to make the abortion pills a schedule of four controlled substance in order to target someone who secretly slips them into his pregnant wife's drink. But this is a common tactic used by lawmakers to grant the state new power, using an extreme and sympathetic example of wrongdoing to justify a wide-reaching change that will be used in matters way beyond that example, Brown said.
Starting point is 00:17:00 In this case, the most likely target is doctors who prescribe mefipristone and misoprostol. The bill explicitly exempts pregnant women who have used misoprostol or mefipristone for their own use from prosecution, another example of the weird paternalism involved in anti-abortion laws. I'm certainly glad most states don't want to criminalize women for attempting or having abortions, but it's also somewhat crazy to act like the woman here is not culpable for her actions, but someone who helped her get abortion pills is, Brown wrote. Doctors are likely to be leery of prescribing these medications for people who need them, much in the same way that crackdowns on pain pills and ADHD medications have harmed people who legitimately need these medications for health conditions. All right, let's send it over to Isaac for his take.
Starting point is 00:17:59 All right, that is it for what the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. So this bill is bad policy and even worse politics. Let's start with the policy. Simply put, there is no world where possessing Administration's Mifepristone approval last year, I focus on how the drug is only available thanks to the FDA's gold standard approval. Similarly, and contrary to the fear-mongering of writers like Jordan Boyd under what the right is saying, every indication we have is that misopristol is also safe. And by the way, it is used for other purposes besides abortion, including as a way to decrease the risk of bleeding ulcers. So that's one obvious point. Another is the impact on the medical profession. If legislators are going to pass laws that remove or restrict tools doctors have at their disposal for care,
Starting point is 00:18:58 they should be consulting those doctors about how to navigate it, not acting on anecdotal personal experience. those doctors about how to navigate it, not acting on anecdotal personal experience. In this case, rather than doctors working with legislators explaining how they use these drugs or asking them to take action on drugs they are seeing damaging their community, we have doctors writing to legislators after legislation has already been passed informing them that their action is going to make it harder and less safe to treat their patients. Sorry, but I'm going to take the word of Louisiana's medical professionals on the use cases for this drug over the word of its lawmakers. This is not a sign of good policymaking. My next concern is over the weird paternalism of anti-abortion laws, as Elizabeth Nolan Brown put it. I can't think of any other
Starting point is 00:19:41 crime, in this case abortion, in which the central perpetrator, in this case the mother, is automatically absolved while all the other people around them are criminalized. If abortion is murder, as these lawmakers say, they are effectively absolving the murderer while throwing the book at their various accomplices. It makes absolutely no sense, except when you realize that lawmakers were not prepared to deal with the obvious implication of criminalizing abortion. It is totally nonsensical not to punish pregnant mothers for what they have now defined as a crime. And I don't want to be misunderstood here. I'm all for finding ways to increase the number of planned and wanted pregnancies and reduce the number of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, but I'm not advocating for punishing women for abortion,
Starting point is 00:20:27 the obvious implication being that I am against abortion criminalization. Abortion is both a policy and a moral question. I've written a lot about my view on the morals of it, which you can go find with links in our episode description or today's newsletter if you want, but I think you can leave aside that aspect to focus on the policy.
Starting point is 00:20:45 Because of the nature of abortion, a choice that is deeply personal and often directly intertwined with health risk, medical care, and necessity, stringent government oversight becomes very complicated and very dangerous very quickly. Even leaving all that aside, Louisiana lawmakers simply didn't have to do this. They've won on Roe v. Wade, they've banned medical and surgical abortions, and it is illegal in the state to use either drug to induce an abortion without a prescription. All this policy will do is create an excess layer of criminality to possessing mifepristone and misopristol and add another hoop for actual doctors to jump through to get the drugs, which have all sorts of uses,
Starting point is 00:21:30 including helping women safely navigate a miscarriage. Which finally brings me to the politics. Let me start by giving State Senator Thomas Presley some grace. His sister was newly pregnant when her husband tried to secretly kill their child by spiking her drinks with abortion drugs. I write often about the fact that politics are personal, and I can't imagine many things more horrifying and personal for Presley and his family than that. So I understand his desire to act, and even the inclination to respond to this very bizarre and unusual instance by passing a very bad piece of legislation that will impact millions of people. But it's worth emphasizing that his sister's story, which took place in Texas, was the single example they cited of anything like this happening anywhere in the country. Simply put, the political ramifications are bad optics for Republicans. I don't see any other way
Starting point is 00:22:15 of viewing this other than as a case of Republican extremism on abortion that will hurt Republicans electorally. So, aside from being bad policy that will do very little to move the needle on ending abortions, if anything, it is likely to ensure a bigger black market of underground and unsafe abortions as most drug restrictions do. It's also going to hurt the anti-abortion movement and hurt Republicans nationwide. The story should be about how Louisiana lawmakers are ignoring doctors in their own state, telling them this bill is going to make pregnancy less safe for expectant mothers, even the ones who have no intention of seeking out an abortion. It is, simply put, a fringe and radical position to want to throw people in prison for possessing these drugs, and now it's a position
Starting point is 00:22:58 that the entire party is going to be forced to defend. All right, that is it for my take, which brings us to your questions answered. This one's from John in Glenmont, Maryland. John said, how do you decide to put opinions from institutional editorial boards in either the from the right or from the left section? I was a bit surprised to see The Economist included in the from the left section. In many circles, The Economist would be described as from the right. Similarly, I've been surprised in the past to see local newspapers included in the from the left section as well, and I wonder how someone decides whether the editorial board of the New Orleans Times-Picayune or any other local paper is more from the left or from the right. It seems that in practice, the Wall Street Journal editorial board is always listed as
Starting point is 00:23:51 from the right, and all other institutional editorial boards are listed as from the left. But doesn't that just perpetuate the liberal media bias narrative of always listing institutional editorial boards as coming from the left? Okay, John, lots of questions there. All very good. I think I have some simple answers. First off, every editorial board has a general lean or bias. You can see that with your own two eyes, or you can find bias ratings from firms like Allsides or AdFonts. And that's the answer to your first question. If we want to see the bias of a local paper like the New Orleans outlet, the Times-Picayune, which coincidentally we cited under what the left is saying in today's main
Starting point is 00:24:29 story, bias rating websites can paint a reliable picture of general bias. But those general biases are just that, general. While the editorial boards of a paper can reliably slant one way or the other, and it's more than just the Wall Street Journal who lists Starboard, by the way, the New York Post, and National Review, and Washington Examiner, and Chicago Tribune, and many others all have reliable conservative bents, each author is their own person. For instance, Ross Dutat at the New York Times is a reliably conservative author, and you'll find his writings from the Times listed under what the right is saying in Tangle. And within the left or right are other unique worldviews that take on subtly different flavors. The Economist is a good example. The executive editor there demonstrates a general neoliberal slant, wherein she has a pretty
Starting point is 00:25:13 middle-of-the-road status quo perspective that may not be aligned with U.S. progressivism, but that same worldview is very oppositional towards global conservatism. And for whatever it's worth, all sides in AdFonce both rate The Economist as a left-leaning outlet too. Lastly, each person will judge an organization's bias based on their own existing biases. I'll never forget the reader who chastised me for putting the famously conservative site The Federalist under what the right is saying because they weren't as conservative as the places they got their information, which provided their frame of reference. And that's not to denigrate that reader either. It's just an example of how we all have our own ideas of what neutral means, and very few of those ideas may be truly neutral. Discussing bias is complicated. Even with Tangle, it can be hard. I never say we are
Starting point is 00:26:00 unbiased, but sometimes we'll say that we are non-partisan because we don't favor any particular political group and because media bias analysts back us up on that. Yet every day, we're sharing views from explicitly partisan writers, and sometimes I'll give my support for their commentary and my take. Anybody could read us as biased or partisan in one issue, but I think our balance in partisanship becomes apparent over time. In other words, everybody has biases, political or otherwise, and it's not apparent over time. In other words, everybody has biases, political or otherwise, and it's not always easy to categorize individual writers or specific news outlets. All right, that is it for your questions answered. I'm going to send it back to John for the rest of today's podcast, and I will see you guys on Sunday. Have a good one. Thanks, Isaac. And here's your Under the radar story for today, folks. This weekend,
Starting point is 00:26:53 Mexico is holding a historic election that could affect the United States dramatically. Mexico is the United States largest trading partner. And right now the countries are working on bilateral collaborations to stem the flow of migrants coming through Mexico into the U.S. This weekend, Mexican voters appear poised to elect their first woman president, either Claudia Sheinbaum from the ruling Morena coalition, or Xochitl Galvez, a former senator from the opposition. The focus on the election has been on domestic issues, but Mexico's next president will have a major role in issues directly impacting the U.S. Axios has this story, and there's a link in today's
Starting point is 00:27:25 episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. The year Mifepristone was first approved for use in the United States by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was 2000. The percentage of Americans who support women obtaining the pills needed for a medical abortion from a doctor or clinic is 72%, according to a March 2024 poll from Axios Ipsos. The percentage of Americans who support women obtaining the pills needed for a medical abortion through the mail is 50%. The percentage of Louisiana voters who believe the state should allow women to access abortion services during the first 15 weeks of pregnancy is 54%, according to a May 2024 poll from the Times-Picayune. The number of medical abortions in the United States in 2023, accounting for 63% of all abortions, was 642,700, according to the
Starting point is 00:28:19 Guttmacher Institute. The increase in abortions performed between 2020 and 2023 is 11%. And the number of states that signed an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs in FDA vs. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine challenging the FDA's approval of mefepristone is 22. All right, and last but not least, our Have a Nice Day story. A group of British tourists were enjoying the bioluminescent waters of a river off of the Manialtepec Lagoon in Mexico, a location deemed safe by locals when the moment was shattered. A crocodile attacked Melissa Laurie suddenly, dragging her underwater.
Starting point is 00:28:59 That's when her twin sister, Georgia, sprang into action. With one hand, Georgia kept her sister's head above water, while with the other, she fiercely punched the crocodile, somehow fending it off and saving her sister's life. I just punched the heck out of it, Georgia said. For her bravery, Georgia was awarded the prestigious King's Gallantry Medal. Sunny Skies has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that's it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, please go to retangle.com and sign up for a membership.
Starting point is 00:29:33 As Isaac said at the top, the Friday edition is going to be in the newsletter only as a members exclusive edition. So if you want that kind of coverage and a lot more of that going forward, now's a great time to sign up for a membership to stay ahead of what's to come. We'll be right back here on Monday. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have an incredible weekend, y'all.
Starting point is 00:29:57 Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by John Wall. The script is edited by our managing editor, Ari Weitzman, Will Kabak, Bailey Saul, and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bokova, who is also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. If you're looking for more from Tangle, please go to readtangle.com and check out our website. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond
Starting point is 00:30:50 Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.

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