(RepublicanPress.org) – In June 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing individual states to decide whether or not their female residents could access abortion services. That decision changed the landscape of America concerning women’s rights. Now, another case sits before the high court that could further change medical care in the US.
In December 2023, SCOTUS agreed to hear a case brought by the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which challenges the FDA’s approval of and access to the drug mifepristone — an abortion pill. The administration, full of medical professionals and scientists, approved the drug 24 years ago. It is the most widely used drug for abortions. The Supreme Court began hearing arguments about the matter from both sides on March 26.
Currently, the medication is available through the mail and doesn’t require a doctor’s visit. That system allows women who happen to live in states where their reproductive care is restricted to have access to abortions.
Alliance Defending Freedom Attorney Erin Hawley stated her client just wants to put previous-changed “safeguards” back in place — doctor visits and other changes. It would shorten the window to use the drug from the current 10 weeks to 7. Many women don’t know they’re pregnant at that stage.
The result of reversing the FDA changes would be that many women would lose the mifepristone option, leaving a less effective drug for patients seeking abortions — misoprostol — or surgery.
Chemical abortions are less invasive and traumatic and more private for women in America. According to Dr. Rebecca Gomperts from Aid Access, 85,000 women ordered the drug by mail in 2023, and 50,000 of them lived in states where abortion access is restricted.
University of California at Davis Law Professor Mary Ziegler said the potential FDA rule rollback would “upend how drug approvals function.” The FDA has approved drugs for safety and effectiveness for over 100 years in the United States.
Copyright 2024, RepublicanPress.org
