Supreme Court mifepristone case will affect millions. Don’t base ruling off junk science.

Access to safe and effective medications like mifepristone should be based on rigorous scientific research and the medical community consensus – not the fringe opinions of a few extremists.

Julia Kaye
Jan 31, 2024

Overturning Roe v. Wade was just the beginning.

In Idaho v. United States, the question is whether states can disregard longstanding federal protections and bar doctors from providing abortions to patients experiencing medical emergencies.

The second case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. Food and Drug Administration, targets access to mifepristone, a safe and effective medication used in most abortions in this country and for miscarriage management. Since its FDA approval a quarter century ago, mifepristone has been safely used by more than 5 million people.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2024/01/31/supreme-court-abortion-pill-mifepristone-junk-science/72370445007/

Georgia Supreme Court Allows Six-Week Abortion Ban to Remain in Effect as Legal Challenge Continues

October 24, 2023
ACLU
Case: SisterSong v. State of Georgia / Affiliate: ACLU of Georgia

ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court issued a ruling today that allows H.B. 481, a ban on abortion after approximately six weeks of pregnancy, to remain in effect. The court’s majority opinion disregards long-standing precedent that a law violating either the state or federal Constitution at the time of its enactment is void from the start under the Georgia Constitution. Georgia’s ban was blatantly unconstitutional when enacted in 2019 against the backdrop of Roe v. Wade and almost five decades of federal precedent, and therefore unenforceable, as the trial court found. But today’s ruling reversing the lower court’s decision concludes that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe last year effectively erased that history.

Continued: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/georgia-supreme-court-allows-six-week-abortion-ban-to-remain-in-effect-as-legal-challenge-continues

USA – Many women can’t access miscarriage drug because it’s also used for abortions

BY: CAITLIN DEWEY
OCTOBER 21, 2023

Since losing her first pregnancy four months ago, 32-year-old Lulu has struggled to return to her body’s old rhythms. Lulu, who asked to be identified by her first name to protect her privacy, bled for six full weeks after her miscarriage and hasn’t had a normal menstrual cycle since.

Such disruptions aren’t uncommon after miscarriage, which affects roughly 1 in 10 known pregnancies. But for Lulu, they’ve also served as a persistent reminder that she couldn’t access the drug mifepristone — her preferred method of care — to help her body pass the miscarriage. Instead, her doctor prescribed a drug called misoprostol, which on its own is less effective.

Continued: https://ncnewsline.com/2023/10/21/many-women-cant-access-miscarriage-drug-because-its-also-used-for-abortions/

2021 was pivotal year for abortion laws in America

A half century of abortion rights for American women faltered this year.

By Devin Dwyer
28 December 2021

For half a century, American women have had the right to choose to end a pregnancy at any point before a fetus is viable outside the womb. If 2021 saw that freedom start to crumble, 2022 could see it more widely wiped away.

"I think this is the time," said an anti-abortion rights activist from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, who declined to share her name this fall while outside the state’s only remaining abortion clinic in Jackson.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/2021-pivotal-year-abortion-laws-america/story?id=81860784

FDA says abortion pills can be sent by mail

By Tierney Sneed, CNN
Thu December 16, 2021

(CNN)The US Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it is lifting a requirement that patients seeking medication abortion had to pick up the medication in-person, instead allowing pills to be sent by mail. The move comes as the Supreme Court is poised to undo its abortion rights precedent.

Relaxing the federal restrictions on medication abortion is one thing that the Biden administration could do mitigate the fallout from a Roe v. Wade reversal, but red states are already on the march to counteract what the federal government has opted to do.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/16/politics/medication-abortion-fda-supreme-court/index.html

FDA relaxes controversial restrictions on access to abortion pill by mail

Updated December 16, 2021
Sarah McCammon, Jonathan Franklin – NPR

The Food and Drug Administration has announced it will relax controversial restrictions on a heavily regulated medication used to induce abortions — easing access to the drug at a time when abortion rights are being increasingly restricted nationwide.

The drug, mifepristone, is approved for use in combination with another medication, misoprostol, to terminate pregnancies up to 10 weeks and is sometimes used to treat women experiencing miscarriages.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/15/1064598531/the-fda-could-permanently-lift-some-restrictions-on-abortion-pills

How 3 lawsuits could potentially stop the Texas abortion ban

There are three major cases currently challenging the new Texas law, all taking up different arguments. Any one of them could reach the Supreme Court. Here’s how.

Jennifer Gerson, Reporter
October 1, 2021

Texas’ law effectively banning abortions after six weeks will get its first hearing in front of a judge since going into effect last month. A U.S. district judge in Austin will hear arguments in the federal government’s suit against Texas Friday, the earliest opportunity for a court order that could block Senate Bill 8 and prevent it from continuing to be enforced.

It’s the first in a salvo of challenges to SB 8. Last week, the ACLU, on behalf of the abortion provider Whole Woman’s Health, asked for an expedited hearing on their case. And 20 days after SB 8 went into effect, the first civil suit against an abortion provider was filed after the provider publicly said he knowingly violated the law.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2021/10/how-3-lawsuits-could-stop-the-texas-abortion-ban/

USA – Women seeking medication abortions face increasing state restrictions as FDA weighs action

“Over the past year, we've seen states really target medication abortion in a way that we hadn't seen," Elizabeth Nash, of the Guttmacher Institute, said.

July 31, 2021
By Rebecca Shabad

WASHINGTON — The coronavirus had started to shut much of the country down in March 2020 when Larada Lee found out she was six weeks pregnant.

She wanted to end her pregnancy and decided that instead of a surgical abortion, she would use medication, a process she could complete at home. This, she thought, was her best chance of limiting her exposure to Covid-19.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/women-seeking-medication-abortions-face-increasing-state-restrictions-fda-weighs-n1275199

Even people who oppose abortion should fear Texas’s new ban

The law could give a roadmap to any state that wants to target a federal right, from gun ownership to free speech.

By Julia Kaye and Marc Hearron
July 19, 2021

This spring, the Texas legislature dropped the charade that its years-long campaign to shutter abortion clinics was ever about patient safety and simply banned abortion outright. Texas Senate Bill 8 (S.B. 8) prohibits abortions beginning at approximately six weeks of pregnancy — before many people even realize they are pregnant. Our organizations, along with Planned Parenthood Federation of America and other partners, have sued to block S.B. 8 on behalf of a coalition of Texas abortion clinics, doctors, health center staff, abortion funds, practical support networks and clergy, because the law will cause profound harm to Texans and is plainly unconstitutional.

But even those opposed to abortion should be alarmed by this law, which could draw a road map for states and localities looking to dismantle constitutional rights with impunity.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/07/19/texas-sb8-abortion-lawsuits/

USA – Covid Put Remote Abortion to the Test. Supporters Say It Passed.

Medication abortion was briefly available online in some states, but a court ruling blocked it. Advocates want it back.

BY REBECCA GRANT
04.05.2021

LAST SUMMER, Cindy Adam and Lauren Dubey received the news they had hoped for, but hadn’t expected to get so soon. Their new telemedicine clinic would be able to offer remote medication abortion services, at least for the time being.

Medication abortion — which most commonly involves taking two medications, 24 to 48 hours apart, during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy — has been available in the U.S. since 2000. But, despite a growing chorus of advocates and experts who say remote access is just as safe as in-clinic care, the Food and Drug Administration requires providers to dispense mifepristone, the first of the two medications, inside the walls of a clinic, hospital, or medical office, citing the risk of complications. Most abortion providers interpreted this language to mean they could not mail mifepristone to patients’ homes, rendering fully remote abortion care impossible.

Continued: https://undark.org/2021/04/05/digital-abortion-access/

05.04.2021