In what may be the biggest reproductive health decision since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, we are watching the legal proceedings on the availability of one of the medications used most in abortions – mifepristone. Many groups supporting health and reproductive rights, including NoHLA, are urging the Supreme Court to extend its temporary stay (pause) on a disturbing ruling by a Texas lower court judge. The ruling stopped the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of mifepristone in 2000, although it has not taken effect pending appeal. If the ruling takes effect, the medication could become unavailable nationwide. 

NoHLA is a party to the amicus brief supporting the stay, organized by the Center for Reproductive Rights, ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, NoHLA joins more than 200 other local, regional and national organizations in taking a stand for bodily autonomy and safe reproductive health care. The brief outlines the Texas court decision’s potentially devastating impact on health, bodily autonomy, reproductive rights, and justice for communities across the nation and urges the Supreme Court to extend the hold on the Texas U.S. District Court ruling while it is being appealed. 

There are two different legal actions relating to mifepristone in conflict here. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an emergency motion to stay Texas Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which was partially granted on April 12th. The Appeals Court temporarily blocked the Texas federal judge’s ruling that suspended the FDA’s approval which allows it to remain on the market, but imposed restrictions from 2016 which barred distribution by mail, required multiple in-person clinic visits, and limited usage to the first seven weeks of pregnancy.  

On the same day as Kacsmaryk’s ruling, April 7th, a U.S. District Court Judge in eastern Washington issued a ruling in a case filed by AG Bob Ferguson seeking to protect the availability of mifepristone in Washington, 16 other states, and the District of Columbia. That district court ruling barred the FDA from changing the availability of mifepristone in those jurisdictions. The two contradictory court orders, one rescinding the FDA approval and the other, requiring that the FDA not to change the availability of mifepristone, prompted Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s stay of the original Texas ruling. That stay was set to expire today, April 19th, but it has been extended to this Friday, April 21st at 11:59 pm EDT.

The amicus brief:

• emphasizes that as a result of the Texas U.S. District Court’s ruling, people across the country may be denied access to mifepristone, even in states where abortion remains legal or protected, cutting off a medication used in the majority of abortions in the US; these individuals may suffer devastating personal, professional, educational, and health consequences as a result.
• acknowledges that the impacts and burdens of this decision will fall hardest on communities most impacted by systemic racism and other forms of oppression who already face barriers to care, including Black, Indigenous, and other people color, those with low incomes, LGBTQ+ people, young people, immigrants, people with disabilities, people living in rural areas, and those living at the intersection of these identities. 
• underscores that Judge Kacsmaryk’s decision is contrary to law as well as to the immense wealth of medical evidence demonstrating that medication abortion is one of the safest medication regimens in the United States, noting that the “experts” that the plaintiffs and the court rely on have been widely discredited in the medical and scientific community. 
• highlights the Texas U.S. District Court’s failure to recognize the decision’s effect on exacerbating the current reproductive health care crisis in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which has left tens of millions of people across the country without meaningful access to abortion, amplifying the need for access to mifepristone where such care is still available.  

In addition to the legal proceedings, we’re also watching ongoing state action, given Governor Inslee’s unprecedented purchase of a three-year supply of mifepristone and related late-breaking legislation (SB 5768), to address its distribution.