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Supreme Court to Hear Case on Access to Mifepristone Abortion Pill

The 19th, December 13, 2023

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on the future of mifepristone, a drug used in more than half of all abortions in the United States, setting up another major dispute over abortion rights less than two years after the court’s conservative majority voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. The case, concerning the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, will be argued early next year. That means the court, which last year overturned Roe in a 6-3 decision, could rule on the issue sometime next year. Mifepristone, when used in combination with a drug called misoprostol, offers a safe and effective mechanism to terminate a first-trimester pregnancy. Health care professionals can provide the drug in-person to patients or prescribe it virtually and mail the medication, according to 2021 and 2023 guidelines from the FDA. The mifepristone-misoprostol regimen is endorsed by authorities such as the World Health Organization. The White House issued a statement backing the current policy. “This administration will continue to stand by FDA’s independent approval and regulation of mifepristone as safe and effective,” Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said. She added, “We continue to urge Congress to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade.” Since Roe was overturned, giving states the power to ban abortion, mifepristone has taken on an even greater significance. In states where the procedure remains legal, clinics seeing an increase in out-of-state patients have relied on medication abortion – which is often quicker, easier and cheaper to provide, and which can be prescribed to patients over telemedicine in some states – as a way to quickly scale up operations. Blocking mifepristone would make it impossible to continue providing the standard regimen of medication abortion care – meaning that the Supreme Court’s decision could dramatically reshape what abortion-related care medical providers can offer, even in states where the procedure remains legal. This case, brought by a group of anti-abortion medical practitioners, concerns the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, which was granted more than 20 years ago.

Supreme Courts in Three States Will Hear Cases About Abortion Access This Week

NPR, December 11, 2023

The future of reproductive rights for a wide swath of the Mountain West may be decided next week, as three state Supreme Courts hear arguments in cases that will determine abortion access in the region. Here’s what to know. Which law is the law in Arizona? When the U.S. Supreme Court returned abortion regulating power to states, Arizona had two seemingly conflicting abortion laws on the books. One, passed just a few months before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, outlaws abortion after 15 weeks. The other, which dates back to 1864, is a near-total ban. Arizona abortion providers didn’t know which law to follow, until the Arizona Court of Appeals decided to “harmonize” the state’s conflicting abortion laws last December. Judges said the 1864 near-total ban should continue to apply, but only for non-physicians. Doctors could follow the newer law and provide abortions up to 15 weeks…New Mexico allows abortion – can local governments ban it? Abortion is legal in New Mexico, where the state repealed a 1969 ban on the procedure in 2021. Post-Roe, abortion rates in New Mexico have more than tripled as surrounding states have banned or restricted the procedure. Clinics forced to close in nearby Texas and Mississippi have even relocated to the state. But some conservative areas of New Mexico responded by passing their own local ordinances restricting abortion providers. This week, the state Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether these de facto local bans are lawful…Who gets a say in Wyoming’s lawsuit about abortion access? Under the Wyoming Constitution, people have the right to make their own health care decisions. But does abortion qualify as health care in the state? That is the question before a judge in Teton County, Wyoming this week, who could issue a ruling or decide to send the case to trial next spring. The state Supreme Court is hearing arguments over whether to allow two Republican state lawmakers and anti-abortion group Right to Life Wyoming to intervene in the case.

How Abortion Could Impact the 2024 U.S. Elections

Reuters, December 14, 2023

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to eliminate a nationwide right to abortion was a moment of triumph for conservatives who had labored for five decades to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Nearly two dozen Republican-controlled states have taken advantage of the ruling to impose new restrictions on abortion, curtailing access to the procedure for tens of millions of women. But the ruling has also turned the issue into a political liability for Republicans. Voter backlash was widely credited with limiting Republican gains in the 2022 congressional midterm elections, as well as propelling Democrats to victories last month in Virginia and Kentucky. Every statewide ballot question about reproductive rights since 2022 – seven in all – has yielded victory for abortion rights advocates, including in conservative states such as Ohio, Kansas and Kentucky. Republican presidential candidates, including frontrunner Donald Trump, have struggled to articulate a position on abortion that would satisfy both the evangelical Christians who comprise a critical Republican voting bloc as well as the swing voters who prefer abortion remain accessible. President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign and Democratic-aligned groups intend to put abortion rights at the center of next year’s White House contest. “It’s pretty evident, both with research and the elections we held in 2023, that abortion is a winning issue for us,” said Danielle Butterfield, the executive director of Priorities USA, a leading Democratic super PAC, or fundraising committee. “We plan to communicate heavily on the issue heading into 2024.” WHY IT MATTERS: The 2022 Supreme Court decision has deepened the cultural divide between conservative and liberal states. Many states under Democratic control, such as New York, California and Maryland, have enacted additional protections for reproductive rights since the ruling, while Republican-dominated states – including most of the South – have banned or limited abortion. The number of patients traveling to other states to get an abortion has doubled since 2020, reaching nearly one in five, according to research published in December by the pro–reproductive rights Guttmacher Institute.”

Pregnant Women Take a Leading Role in New Legal Battles Over Abortion

The Washington Post, December 13, 2023

Kate Cox caught the attention of the nation last week when she asked a Texas judge for permission to end her pregnancy. Three days later, a pregnant woman filed suit anonymously in Kentucky, arguing that the state’s near-total abortion ban violates her constitutional right to privacy and self-determination. And across Texas, Tennessee and Idaho, several dozen women who had previously experienced pregnancy complications are awaiting decisions in a string of cases that could expand the health exceptions in their state abortion bans. “I was condemned to endure both physical and emotional torture, knowing that I was going to deliver a stillborn,” said Nicole Blackmon, one of the plaintiffs suing Tennessee, when the lawsuit was announced in September. “I want some good to come out of my ordeal, so I am joining this case.” The burst of lawsuits that put pregnant women front and center reflects a shift in approach by the abortion rights movement, which has long brought challenges through claims by clinics and doctors who remain affected by abortion restrictions beyond the narrow window during which patients would be seeking to end their pregnancies. The strategy behind the new, high-profile lawsuits has both legal and political implications for the fate of abortion access in the ever-evolving aftermath of the fall of Roe v. Wade, according to experts tracking the cases. They enable advocacy groups to chip away at the new laws by highlighting particular circumstances that jeopardize the health of the mother – while compelling the courts, as well as the country, to reckon with some of the most harrowing consequences of abortion bans. “For the past year and a half, what has resonated in the public consciousness is patient stories,” said David Cohen, a law professor at Drexel who specializes in constitutional law and gender. “It’s much more compelling when you have [Cox] as opposed to Planned Parenthood.” It is not yet clear what long-term effects the cases brought by patients will have. When the Texas Supreme Court ruled against Cox on Monday night – soon after the 31-year-old left the state for an abortion – they set no precedent for future abortion cases, said Molly Duane, Cox’s lawyer at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

It’s Taking Longer to Get an Abortion in the US. Doctors Fear Riskier, More Complex Procedures

AP News, December 9, 2023

A woman whose fetus was unlikely to survive called more than a dozen abortion clinics before finding one that would take her, only to be put on weekslong waiting lists. A teen waited seven weeks for an abortion because it took her mother that long to get her an appointment. Others seeking the procedure faced waits because they struggled to travel hundreds of miles for care. Such obstacles have grown more common since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, doctors and researchers say, causing delays that can lead to abortions that are more complex, costly and in some cases riskier – especially as pregnancies get further along. About half of U.S. states now have laws that ban or restrict access to abortion. Because of that, many clinics don’t offer the procedure, which has increased demand for appointments at the remaining providers. At various points since Roe, waits in several states stretched for two or three weeks, and some clinics had no available appointments, according to results of a periodic survey spearheaded by Middlebury College economics professor Caitlin Myers and recently provided to The Associated Press. Doctors and researchers say even as wait times have lessened, people still encounter other challenges, like planning and paying for travel, taking time off work and finding child care. “All of those things can contribute to delays, and then it kind of becomes like this vicious circle,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman, an OB-GYN at the University of California, San Francisco, who co-authored a research report earlier this year that compiled anecdotes from health care providers after Roe was overturned. People may miss the window for medication abortions, which are not generally offered past 10 to 11 weeks gestation. A dwindling number of clinics provide abortions as people move through the second trimester, which begins at 13 or 14 weeks. Costs for the procedure change, too, from up to $800 in the first trimester to $2,000 or more in the second trimester.

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

The Supreme Court just announced that it is going to hear a case about access to mifepristone, one of the pills commonly used in medication abortion care. https://t.co/pr0hApbA5z

– National Partnership (@NPWF) December 13, 2023

 

 

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Note: The information contained in this publication reflects media coverage of women’s health issues and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Partnership for Women & Families.