The following is a statement by Annie Contractor, Policy Director of RuralOrganizing.org:
More than 217 obstetric units have closed since 2011, and with maternal healthcare deserts growing, mifepristone is a lifeline to rural Americans who need abortions and obstetric care when they are long distances from a provider. Mifepristone has long been the only safe, effective, and private means of abortion access in places that have never had abortion care, such as many rural communities, underserved communities, and communities of color.
Rural Organizing Education Fund is unwavering in our commitment to abortion rights, which is why we have joined 236 peer organizations in signing an amicus brief denouncing the Fifth Circuit’s opinion in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine concerning the safety and approval of mifepristone. We stand together with organizations from all fifty states including clinics, health centers, advocacy organizations, religious groups, research institutes, and others. The brief details the facts:
- Mifepristone is safe, effective, and widely used.
- Restricting mifepristone access will bring immediate and severe consequences.
This is another test for the right-wing Justices on the Supreme Court to show if they will again put their own politics above science and the well-being of pregnant people. It’s clear from the arguments that the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the lawsuit and the lower courts got it wrong. The only sound ruling would be for the Court to reverse the decision of the Fifth Circuit, led by District Court Judge Kacsmaryk, with instructions to dismiss the case.
Arguments heard today stand to not only undermine pregnant people’s ability to direct their own lives, but to up-end the governance structures of our medicines and medical decision-making that have been painstakingly built to keep us safe.
The anti-abortion rights physicians and organizations bringing this case have leaned on faulty science and false history to justify a case that should never have reached the Supreme Court.
Groups with an agenda funded the research and made unsupported claims about mifepristone’s danger, including a supposed history of a haphazard approval of the drug, even though the Food and Drug Administration was unusually cautious due to already intense scrutiny. Moreover, mountains of evidence show that mifepristone is safe. The individuals bringing the case have no experience prescribing the drug or monitoring its use, and lack evidence that emergency room crowding results from its use.
As Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar forcefully explained, all medications and medical decisions could be at risk should the Court rule in favor of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine: The FDA will be subject to the opinions of elected officials instead of reputable scientists and the scientific process that determines what is safe. If the court is convinced to turn its back on scientific decision-making for approval of drugs, any person with any kind of objection could get a medication pulled from the market.
In less than two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, nearly 65,000 people have become pregnant from rape in states with a ban on abortion; this says nothing of the pregnant people who needed and wanted abortions to control their economic situations, their ability to go to school, or to avoid dangerous risks to their health. We must also be vigilant about the imposition of the Comstock Law, an 1880s law that would have devastating impacts on rural communities, as it criminalizes sending abortifacients through the U.S. Postal Service.
The fallout from overturning Roe v. Wade has already been horrific. The Supreme Court must do the right thing and reverse the rulings of the lower courts and instruct them to dismiss their decisions that were based on the judges’ anti-abortion politics, misinformation and faulty evidence. This is a chance for the Supreme Court to show the people of the United States that facts and evidence matter. We can still trust our institutions that ensure access to safe medications, including for abortion.
The mission of RuralOrganizing.org is to rebuild a rural America that is empowered, thriving, and equitable. Follow us on Twitter @RuralOrganizing.
###
