Hi everyone, it's 4 o'clock in New York as we come on the air. We are closely following developments

out of a Manhattan courthouse where Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's one-time fixer and lawyer

is set to wrap up a second day of testimony before the grand jury and paneled in that criminal

probe into hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels. We're going to be keeping

an eye on that for you throughout broadcast, but we start today with a hearing farther away

in a federal court in West Texas held behind closed doors, no cameras, no audio recordings.

We start there because what happens in this courtroom and with this judge decides could

ultimately have consequences for every single woman and every single family in America.

Oral arguments took place in a case brought by anti-abortion groups challenging the completely

legal, completely safe, long ago approved, routine and decades old use of medication for abortion.

Those groups today asked a judge to order a stop to the use of an abortion pill as their

case makes its way through the courts. Washington Post reports that at the hearing the judge

quote, asked government lawyers on Wednesday about what he characterized as an accelerated

process for approving one of two drugs used in most pregnancy terminations nationwide.

In response, the Justice Department lawyer said there's tremendous evidence showing this

pill is safe even when a doctor does not administer it. It's unclear when this judge will make

a ruling for when he does. And if he decides to block the use of the pill, the impact will

be immediate, it will be widespread, it will be deeply disruptive.

New York Times reports this quote, more than half of all abortions and 64 percent of abortions

before 10 weeks of pregnancy relied on abortion pills in 2020. That is according to the CDC.

And in states like Colorado and Iowa, Maine, Nebraska, Vermont and Wyoming, the share of

abortions done with medication was 70 percent or higher. The ruling would also be completely

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