Overview

• Alice Marie Pence was arrested in Florida for allegedly threatening to kill U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, over his decision to suspend federal approval of the abortion pill Mifepristone.
• Pence faces charges of transmitting a threatening interstate communication and influencing a federal official by threat, with her next hearing scheduled for November 22 in Dallas federal court.
• Judge Kacsmaryk, a Donald Trump appointee, made a ruling in April that suspended federal approval of Mifepristone for use in abortions, overturning decades of scientific approval.
• This ruling came after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, significantly reducing access to abortion across the country, a decision President Joe Biden's administration is challenging.
• Mifepristone is one of two pills used in medication abortions. Medical providers suggest that they could switch to the second pill, misoprostol, if mifepristone becomes unavailable, despite misoprostol being somewhat less effective.