Women were instrumental in helping during the AIDS crisis, and so I am always an ally in the fight for women’s rights. Since a federal judge in Texas last week invalidated the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, states led by Democrats have been scrambling to adjust to a possible future without it.
A poll found that by a 3 to 1 margin (65-21), American adults agree that “medication abortion should remain legal in the United States,” including a healthy plurality (49-35) of Republicans.
The governor of Massachusetts has asked the University of Massachusetts to purchase a one-year supply of the abortion pill mifepristone, and issued an order shielding pharmacists who stock the drug, abortion providers and patients from criminal and civil liability.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Monday that the state had purchased an “emergency stockpile” of 250,000 pills of misoprostol and negotiated the purchase of up to two million.
Washington State is stockpiling a four-year supply of the drug, and has fast-tracked legislation allowing health care providers to distribute it.
Officials in Maine, where at least 70 percent of abortions are done using pills, and in Maryland said this week that they were exploring purchasing additional doses of mifepristone.
The pill is the first in a two-drug medication regimen used in over half of abortions in the United States. A second pill, misoprostol, can be used alone but is not as effective as both drugs together.
The judge put his ruling on hold for a week to allow time for appeals; the Justice Department appealed the ruling on Monday. A separate ruling by a Washington State federal judge hours after the Texas ruling contradicted the Texas judge and ordered the F.D.A. to make no changes to the availability of the drug in the states involved in that suit. Many expect the dispute to head to the Supreme Court.
The ruling could affect availability even where abortion is legal and who knows, may affect drugs for HIV and others used in our community.
We don’t know who is going to be in the White House in 2024, so can we can’t rely on the F.D.A?
We must enacted legislation protecting access to a wide suite of reproductive health care so that women can continue to make their own decisions about their bodies.
As some activists push for tougher abortion restrictions, Republicans could and have been turning off swing voters who don’t support strict limits like a national ban on abortion.
By appealing to their shrinking socially conservative base, the Republican Party has been unable to gain a majority of the popular vote in their bid for the White House in eight of the last nine presidential elections.
I believe that this will push people in the way that they were after the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter inspired a social justice movement. As Republicans go to extremes, a backlash will favor progressive candidates.