Local advocates address ongoing fight over abortion pill access
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ROCHESTER, N.Y. Congressman Joe Morelle joined forces with representatives from Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York on Tuesday to respond to Republican attempts to enact a national abortion ban. And just one month ago, a federal judge in Texas suspended FDA approval of abortion pill Mifepristone.
According to the Texas Tribune, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said, “The Court does not second-guess FDA’s decision-making lightly. But here, FDA acquiesced on its legitimate safety concerns — in violation of its statutory duty — based on plainly unsound reasoning and studies that did not support its conclusions.”
Morelle and Madeline Donovan from Planned Parenthood, however, do not agree.
“This is not about safety,” Donovan said. “This drug has been approved and tested time and time again for over 20 years. Almost 5 million individuals have used this safely since 2000. And I would say that this isn’t an issue of safety. This is about other people trying to control our bodies and trying to control our futures.”
The right to abortion is not only a focus in Texas but every state in the country. And according to Donovan, it will hit certain demographics harder than others.
“The effects of these attacks fall hardest on Black, Indigenous and people of color, people struggling to make ends meet, people with disabilities, young people, LGBTQ folks and people living in rural areas,” Donovan said.
Morelle and his colleagues petitioned the United States Supreme Court to continue to support Mifepristone.
“This is causing such enormous disruption right now and will continue to be a problem, which is why we have to fight,” Morelle said.
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled to allow Mifepristone to continue to be widely available in the U.S., blocking the Texas judge’s decision.
According to NBC News, conservative justices Thomas and Alito said they would have let part of Kaczmarek’s ruling take effect.
Rev. Jim Harden of CompassCare Pregnancy Services released the following statement Wednesday:
