People gather in front of the City-County Building, in downtown Pittsburgh, on June 24, 2022, to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn constitutional protection for abortions. (Photo by Clare Sheedy/PublicSource)
“It is difficult to predict whether access to mifepristone would be restricted immediately or more slowly should the court rule against the FDA,” said Susan J. Frietsche, co-executive director of Women’s Law Project.
by Kim Lyons, PublicSource
The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing a case that could put limits on access to mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions.
Pennsylvania is widely considered a “safe” state for reproductive rights: Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks, and Gov. Josh Shapiro was among 21 governors who urged the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus brief to rule in favor of access to mifepristone.
“I believe in women’s freedom to choose – and as long as I’m governor, I will always defend freedom in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said in a statement in January.
Medication abortion includes mifepristone as the first drug and misoprostol as the second. The two-drug regimen accounted for about 63% of abortions within the United States in 2023, according to a March report from the Guttmacher Institute.
And according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, medication abortions accounted for more than half of all abortions performed in the state in 2022, the most recent year for which data was available.
The case
Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit in November 2022, challenging the original approval of the abortion pill in 2000 as well as the changes to when and how the drug could be used that were made in 2016 and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Pediatricians and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations as well as four doctors from California, Indiana, Michigan and Texas.
The case before SCOTUS, Food and Drug Administration [FDA] v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine [AHM], seeks to revert the use of mifepristone back to what was in place before the FDA began making changes in 2016, and would potentially restrict mifepristone from being sent to patients through the mail.
Michael Gibson, director of communications for Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania, called the case “politically motivated and not in the interest of patients or providers.” He added that the case could have potential consequences for patient access to other FDA-approved medications.
“The mifepristone case is a baseless lawsuit, and has been instigated and funded by anti-abortion extremists to further their agenda to eliminate abortion, birth control and other sexual and reproductive health care nationwide,” Gibson said. “Mifepristone is a safe and common drug used in medication abortions for more than 20 years, and the FDA’s authority over medication approvals should never have been challenged. “
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