A district court judge has stayed Louisiana’s ongoing attempt to restrict access to the abortion medication mifepristone, to allow time for the Food and Drug Administration to finish its own review of the medication—which comes directly at the orders of RFK Jr.
But, as contributing editor Carrie Baker reports, there is little doubt the FDA’s review of the drug’s safety will be based on discredited antiabortion propaganda—ignoring the previous FDA studies finding the drug to be safe and effective at the time it was approved for use in the U.S., the 26 years since of use by millions of women in the U.S., and the millions more who have used it safely around the world for decades.
… The Trump administration now holds the baton in this ongoing attack on medication abortion …
Julia Kaye, ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project
The judge who issued the ruling warned that the state would be likely to succeed on the merits if the FDA does not move to restrict the medication. In the interim, though, access to mifepristone by mail via telehealth or at pharmacies continues.
“Putting this baseless case on hold is certainly a better outcome than what Louisiana asked for: severe and immediate restrictions on mifepristone that would upend abortion and miscarriage care across the country,” said Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney for the Reproductive Freedom Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “But it is small comfort that the Trump administration now holds the baton in this ongoing attack on medication abortion when we can see the administration teeing up the same harmful restrictions that abortion opponents are trying to win in court.”
If you’re a regular reader of Ms., I don’t need to tell you that laws like Louisiana’s proposal are directly impacting women across the U.S.—some tragically losing their lives.
This week we reported the stories of women who died after being denied abortion care because of state abortion bans in place where they lived. Public health experts estimate that at least 59 women have died directly because of these bans, and that number is likely an undercount.
“States with abortion bans have disbanded their maternal mortality committees so no one finds out about these deaths, then reconstituted them with antiabortion advocates,” writes Carrie Baker. “Texas’ committee has flat-out refused to review deaths that are considered abortion ban-related.”
As right-wing conservatives work to push our country in increasingly dark directions, here at Ms. we’re turning to the stories of women who resist—a through-line that goes all the way back to before our nation’s founding. I’d encourage you to check out the latest stories in our Feminist 250 series, which reflect on the roles of Indigenous women, feminism’s abolitionist origins and more in our nation’s founding.
“If the Declaration of Independence set forth a promise of equality, it was women—across race, class, sexuality and nationality—who pressed the nation to live up to it,” writes editor Janell Hobson in the project’s introduction.
I hope we can all draw inspiration and ideas from these stories as we fight for the future.
