Abortion by Mail

Plus: Chinese relations, far-right extremists, Yale discriminated, and more...

Mail-order abortion is preserved, for now: "We are pleased that a safe and effective drug Americans depend on will continue to be available while this litigation proceeds," a spokesperson for Danco Laboratories (makers of mifepristone) said in the wake of the Supreme Court deciding to grant a stay to a federal appeals court decision that had briefly required patients seeking abortions to make an in-person visit to a provider vs. getting the drugs dispensed by mail.

Pills are used in more than 60 percent of abortions nowadays. This decision allows them to be distributed by mail in the meantime while litigation continues to unfold.

"Applicants are not entitled to a stay of an adverse court order based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise," writes Justice Clarence Thomas in his dissent. "They cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes."

"What is at stake is the perpetration of a scheme to undermine our decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization," writes Justice Samuel Alito, referring to the 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. This is true: Louisiana is one of the states with a full abortion ban in the wake of Dobbs. The state argued to the justices that remote prescriptions are making its prohibition toothless. It's not totally clear why the justices decided to allow mail-order mifepristone to continue in the meantime, but this isn't the last we've heard of this issue. Stay tuned.

No real conclusion from Beijing: "We've settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn't have been able to settle," President Donald Trump said of his meetings this past week with Chinese President Xi Jinping, announcing approximately zero results from the summit. "We have established a new bilateral relationship, based on constructive strategic stability," said Xi, which is buzzword-speak for "nothing at all."

Trump said China agreed to purchase 200 new planes from Boeing. But he wouldn't say whether he and Xi made progress on Taiwan relations, since Trump has held off on signing a $14 billion weapons deal with Taiwan, trying to approach the issue with Xi with some finesse. It doesn't look like any export restrictions were hammered out. No progress on getting Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai freed. No clarity on whether Nvidia can continue selling chips in China, or whether China has any use for Nvidia chips at all. It seems like very little is actually going to emerge from this summit based on early reports. (Happy to change my tune if wrong.)

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Scenes from New York: "New York lawmakers are planning a new tax on New York City homes purchased in cash for at least $1 million, according to people familiar with the state budget negotiations," reports Bloomberg. "The proposed tax would be levied at 1% of the purchase price and would be paid by the buyer, according to the people." It's like they're trying to drive out their tax base!

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QUICK HITS

• "We will beat the far-right extremists," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D–N.Y.) said Wednesday about…gerrymandering. "We're going to win in November, and then we're going to crush their souls as it relates to the extremism that they are trying to unleash on the American people."
• "Yale University's medical school discriminated against white and Asian applicants, a Justice Department investigation found Thursday," reports The Wall Street Journal. "The findings are part of broader Trump administration probes into alleged racial bias at medical schools. Last week, the Justice Department reached a similar conclusion regarding UCLA's medical school."
• "'Quality' can be a maddeningly vague term, subject to debasement by under-informed enthusiasts and marketing con artists alike," notes Blackbird Spyplane. "So I'm always curious about anyone who promises genuine, insidery, nuts-and-bolts bywords of top-notch garment construction." This all culminates in a bigger question: "What constitutes 'true' value" in the products we buy? And a related thing I wonder about: Is craftsmanship declining over time in normal household goods? How do we judge and seek out quality?
• True:

The hantavirus ship's route is niche for very serious birders and extreme country counters—it's like a population specifically designed to get a pathogen to the actual ends of the earth in 60 days, especially the counters. https://t.co/KcHPDTpnDF pic.twitter.com/fgPYvCpYK1

— worms cited (@christapeterso) May 14, 2026

• Checking in on the French:

The french are a tolerant, broad-minded people, but they will not forgive a president for the crime of not fucking his mistress. https://t.co/Vlme3sHwJi

— Unworthy Hand (@kisstheblade_) May 14, 2026