NEW YORK, NY – The Supreme Court of the United States’ decision today in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine means that for now, medication abortion access in the U.S. will remain unchanged: Women and people who can become pregnant will continue to have access to mifepristone, a pill used for safe and effective medication abortions. However, we must acknowledge that residents of 14 U.S. states where abortion is banned in all circumstances will still not have access to this lifesaving medication.
Medication abortion care via mifepristone has a 20-year track record as a safe, effective, FDA-approved option for ending an early pregnancy and is included in the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines. Additionally, experts from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association agree that when medications used for abortion care are prescribed through telehealth and administered at home, it is just as safe as prescribing them in person.
According to The Guttmacher Institute, nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. in 2023 were medication abortions involving doses of mifepristone and misoprostol. Additionally, recent polling from Navigator Research found that 3 in 5 Americans say medication abortion should remain legal.
Fòs Feminista, our global partners, and other sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice (SRHRJ) advocates around the world know that bans and restrictions such as those sought by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine in this case do nothing to protect the health and well-being of people seeking abortion care, can put people’s lives at risk, and can have devastating effects on other reproductive health care including miscarriage treatment. We also know that the harm always falls hardest on those already facing unequal barriers to health care, especially women and girls who are young, poor, rural, immigrant, LGBTQ+, and women and girls of color.
In response to today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Giselle Carino, chief executive officer of Fòs Feminista, released the following statement:
“Women, girls, and gender-diverse people worldwide rely on mifepristone as a safe medication for self-managing abortion, as do our partners who accompany them in accessing legal abortion care. Today we celebrate that people in the U.S. will not be cut off from accessing this important medication.
We also know that the decisions on SRHRJ rights in the U.S. have an impact around the world, as seen by the global impact of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs, so this is a hopeful day in our shared struggle to protect access to high quality safe abortion everywhere.
The need for a reliable supply of abortion medications and contraceptives, among other reproductive health supplies, is why we established an initiative called INNOVA Health Supplies along with our partners. Through INNOVA, we have worked to innovate and develop new, more affordable ways to produce and deliver mifepristone, as well as other sexual and reproductive supplies, to meet the needs of people who live in areas of the Global South where abortion is legalized but difficult to access.”
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Fòs Feminista is an international feminist alliance centered around sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice for women, girls, and gender-diverse people. Together with more than 200 local organizations across the globe, we engage in healthcare, education, and advocacy to advance our agenda. This includes providing sexual and reproductive health services and implementing community-based strategies that make sexual and reproductive healthcare more accessible to women, girls, and others at the margins. We also engage young people with comprehensive sexuality education and provide care to survivors of gender-based violence. We stand alongside our partners in the streets, in the courts, and in other advocacy spaces as an unapologetically feminist voice, resisting injustice and advocating for gender equality and reproductive rights locally and globally.
