Background Briefing: April 24, 2024
Supreme Court Anti-Abortion Ideologues Threaten Access to Emergency Care
We begin with the Supreme Court’s oral arguments over whether an Idaho abortion ban will gut the Reagan era law EMTALA, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which prevents hospitals from denying patients care who show up at hospital emergency rooms. Joining us is Dr. Rob Davidson, a rural West Michigan emergency medicine physician and the Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Health Care, a national health care advocacy organization made up of thousands of doctors across the country fighting for access to care for their patients and holding politicians accountable. We discuss his op-ed at The Huffington Post, “I’m An Emergency Physician. Here’s How Dangerous This Supreme Court Abortion Ruling Could Be.”
The Search for Diplomatic Openings as the War in Ukraine Escalates
Then, with President Biden signing the $61 billion aid package for Ukraine into law, we assess how much it will stave off defeat rather than achieve victory for Ukraine, and whether there are any openings for a diplomatic settlement, and speak with George Beebe, the Director of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He served in government for nearly twenty-five years, including as director of Russia analysis at CIA and as a White House adviser on Russia matters for Vice President Dick Cheney. His latest book is The Russia Trap: How Our Shadow War with Russia Could Spiral into Nuclear Catastrophe.
Trump’s Republican Party Makes it Clear the GOP Would Rather Cheat Than Compete
Then finally we look into the extent to which minority rule is a structural affliction undermining U.S. democracy and how it is getting worse as Trump’s Republican Party makes it clear that they would rather cheat than compete in elections. Joining us is Ari Berman, the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones and a reporting fellow at Type Media Center. He is the author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America and his latest book, just out, is Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resist It.