Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Nicole Shanahan as his running mate for an independent presidential bid in 2024, Carlyle Group added a fifth woman to its C-suite, and the Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in the abortion pill case. Have a wonderful Wednesday.
– Limiting access. Less than two years after the conservative majority of the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, it will once again decide the fate of a different kind of abortion access in the U.S. On Tuesday, the justices began hearing oral arguments to decide whether to restrict access to the widely used abortion drug mifepristone, including in states where terminations are legal.
At the center of the challenge against the drug is Erin Morrow Hawley, a lawyer with the conservative Christian legal group the Alliance Defending Freedom and the wife of Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley. In her arguments, Hawley claimed the drug is unsafe, despite more than 100 studies finding it to be safe (and two studies finding the pill unsafe were recently retracted).
But Hawley is more than just a legal representative for the cause—she also “represents the ideals of womanhood many in the antiabortion and conservative Christian movement seek to elevate,” making her “ideal for this moment,” according to a recent New York Times profile: She’s a Christian mother of three who has a longtime interest in limiting the role of government in many aspects of American life.
Medication abortion is the most common form of abortion in the country, and its prevalence has been growing in recent years. The current case was brought by a group of antiabortion doctors and organizations who sued the Food and Drug Administration over the approval of the drug, and also its availability by mail. More broadly, it challenges the regulatory authority of the Food and Drug Administration.
At least according to major outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post, the justices seemed skeptical of limiting access. While some of the conservative members of the court, including Justice Samuel Alito, seemed to straight-forwardly question the FDA’s authority, Chief Justice John Roberts—whom Hawley actually clerked for in the past—and Justice Neil Gorsuch questioned her on why a nationwide ban was appropriate.
Before addressing the merits of the case, the justices must first decide if the plaintiffs actually have standing to bring the case—they must demonstrate that they will suffer concrete harm because of the availability of the pill. The liberal justices and at least some of the conservative ones seemed skeptical, with Gorsuch saying the effort was brought by “a handful of individuals.”
A decision is expected by the end of June. Depending on how the justices decide, access to mifepristone could be severely curtailed.
Alicia Adamczyk
alicia.adamczyk@fortune.com
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Jumping in the race. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Nicole Shanahan, a Silicon Valley attorney, as his running mate on Tuesday for an independent run in the 2024 presidential election. Shanahan was once married to Google cofounder Sergey Brin, and she runs Bia-Echo, a nonprofit focused on reproductive rights, criminal justice reform, and environmental issues. The Wall Street Journal
- Carlyle gets a new COO. Lindsay LoBue, who worked at Goldman Sachs for over 20 years before joining Carlyle Group in October, will become the investment firm's COO in July. LoBue is the fifth woman to join CEO Harvey Schwartz’s C-suite since he took over the role in February 2023. At Carlyle, women oversee roughly half of the $426 billion it manages, and 71% of its U.S. hires are women or ethnically diverse. Fortune
- TV drama. Ronna McDaniel has been dropped as a paid on-air contributor by NBC News, according to an internal memo sent to employees by NBCU News Group Chair Cesar Conde. The exit comes amid criticism from NBC and MSNBC hosts who disagree with her previous support of election fraud misinformation and claim they had a poor relationship with McDaniel when she served as chair of the Republican National Convention. McDaniel s reportedly considering legal action against the network, according to Axios. Axios
- Outdoor voices speak out. Former employees at the once-viral athleisure brand Outdoor Voices vented their frustration about chair Ashley Merrill to Fortune after the company abruptly laid off 80% of its corporate employees and closed down all of its retail stores in early March. Former employees, including retail employees who were given no severance and only five days' notice that their stores were closing, told Fortune that Merrill provided no reason for the sudden change and posted cat memes on her Instagram the day that the announcement was made. Fortune
- Racism on the road. Lynne Roberts, the coach of the University of Utah women’s basketball team, told reporters on Monday that the team and its cohort were the victims of “racial hate crimes” while staying in an Idaho city near their NCAA tournament games in Spokane, Wash. Roberts said that the team was called racial slurs multiple times outside of a restaurant in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and was forced to change hotels. Washington Post
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Evite appointed Anda Pho to president.
ON MY RADAR
How Emily Weiss influenced everything Elle
Women leaders aren’t seen as business-driven. Is it holding back sustainability? Vogue Business
Biden’s trustbuster draws unlikely fans: ‘Khanservative’ Republicans The Wall Street Journal
PARTING WORDS
"It really cemented in me the desire to make it known that it was great for women to be ambitious."
—Fashion designer Tory Burch on the adversity ambitious women faced at the time she launched her eponymous fashion line 20 years ago
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