Abortion is still legal and available in Pennsylvania.
Recent rulings related to FDA approval of mifepristone, the first of two drugs taken in the most common medication abortion protocol, have not changed any Pennsylvania laws related to abortion care.
Last night, two conflicting rulings were issued by federal courts in two distinct cases related to mifepristone. These rulings are summarized below.
“There are two things Pennsylvanians need to know right now,” says Susan J. Frietsche, interim co-executive director of Women’s Law Project. “First, both in-clinic abortion procedures and medication abortion are still legal and available in Pennsylvania. Second, while the legal issues are at times complex, the science is clear: mifepristone and medication abortion are safe. False, inflammatory claims to the contrary simply reflect the anti-abortion movement’s longtime strategy of using junk science to advance their agenda of controlling people’s private lives and depriving us of standard healthcare.”
It’s also important to know mifepristone has many applications beyond medication abortion and is needed by people suffering ectopic pregnancy, hemorrhaging during pregnancy complications, endometriosis, PTSD, and brain tumors, among other conditions.
In the anti-abortion agenda, anyone and everyone is simply collateral damage in the quest to deprive us of abortion care.
Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA
Last night, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a preliminary ruling in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA that invalidates the FDA’s 23-year-old approval of mifepristone. As the National Institute for Reproductive Health eloquently stated, the ruling is “riddled with inflammatory anti-abortion rhetoric and false statements [and] flies in the face of medical standards, public opinion, and 20+ years of evidence.”
The U.S. Department of Justice already announced it will appeal the court’s decision.
Washington et al. v. FDA
The second case, filed by a coalition of state attorneys general, accused the FDA of over-regulating mifepristone and asked the FDA to lift politically imposed, medically unnecessary restrictions to increase access to the medication.
Less than an hour after Judge Kacsmaryk issued his ruling, Judge Thomas Rice, a federal judge in Washington State, issued a preliminary ruling in this case, ordering the FDA to make no changes to the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone.
These two rulings are contradictory. This means more litigation, which may escalate to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If you have questions about accessing abortion in Pennsylvania, call 412-281-2892 to leave a confidential message for a Women’s Law Project attorney, or email us at info@womenslawproject.org.
Women’s Law Project is a non-profit public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond.
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