The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000. Since, it has become the most preferred method of abortion for over 50% of women. According to the Library of Medicine,
“Used together with a provider’s direction, a two-medication regimen successfully terminates a pregnancy within 10 weeks of conception in 99.6% of cases with a .4% risk of major complications.” It can be prescribed in the privacy of your own home if appropriate by a telemedicine visit.
In the last 23 years it’s been used by over 5 million women with no significant issues.
As with any medication the FDA- the agency authorized to protect public health by regulating human and veterinary medications, products, foods, devices, vaccines, over the counter options- after rigorous testing, deemed it was safe and effective.
That’s the real issue being contested. It’s been proven to be too safe, too effective and too easy to access and use.
A mere pill can allow a woman control over her own body.
That’s why it’s been the target of rabid abortion foes since its inception.
But Roe v. Wade protected all our rights for 50 years. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade so individual states could decide abortion rights, access changed depending on where you live. In a United States the laws now apply differently depending on arbitrary boundaries.
In a cherry-picked state with a well-known judge openly against abortions and contraception, the Alliance Defending Freedom (the group that wrote the Mississippi law the Supreme Court used to overturn Roe v. Wade), The Alliance for Hippocrates Medicine and The Catholic Medical Association filed a lawsuit that will decide the fate of all women in this country.
That’s right.
The decision by this one district court judge in Texas will affect the entire country if he decides the FDA didn’t have the authority to authorize this pill, not just Texas. The argument is, “The FDA acted to establish a nationwide regime of on-demand abortion by licensing sweeping access to chemical abortions- in defiance of Federal and state laws.”
They then picked a 150 year old anti-obscenity law, The Comstock Act, to further their argument.
It reads, “Section 1461, which is derived from section 2 of the 1873 Act, begins by declaring ‘[e]very obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance’ to be ‘non- mailable matter’ that ‘shall not be conveyed in the mails or delivered from any post office or by any letter carrier.'”
It continues, “The next clauses declare nonmailable ‘[e]very article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use; and [e]very article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose.'”
It has been described by notable legal minds as, “One of the most laughably unconstitutional laws” that is still part of the United States Code. Named after Anthony Comstock, who the Supreme Court once described as “a prominent anti-vice crusader” who believed that “anything remotely touching upon sex was … obscene,” the law is vague, over-broad, and purports to make it a felony to mail a simply astonishing array of material. When Roe fell, numerous state and Federal abortion restrictions that were blocked by Roe suddenly came online.
The Comstock Act was amended in 1936 allowing doctors to distribute contraceptives across state lines. But “trigger laws” like those in Arizona that suddenly require us to follow an outdated, archaic 1901 ban on nearly all abortions are now enforceable.
Laws like this exist everywhere. They sit in our legal system waiting to be abused.
This is just the beginning.
The majority of Justices siding with the repeal of Roe v. Wade made clear they believe the underlying 14th Amendment protection for contraception, intermarriages and legalizing gay rights were not valid either. They’re just waiting for the right case to reach them.
That’s why they picked this judge, in this court- a one-time Christian activist who served as counsel for a conservative legal group that pursues religious- liberty cases, including those he said aimed to, “Defend unborn human life.”
Not only will it devastate women, but it will, for the first time, call into question every other pill or device authorized by the FDA.
Next time it might be Viagra.
Birth control pills.
Or sending through the mail purchases of, condoms, spermicides, vibrators, and more.
In 18 states it’s illegal to have an adulterous relationship. Six make non marital sex illegal. Nine wrote sodomy laws that specifically apply to gay people. They remain on the books because it’s easier and cheaper than expunging them.
Until it’s not.
-https://www.npr.org/2023/02/01/1153593174/mifepristone-abortion-pill-federal-texas-lawsuit-restrict-access-nationwide
-https://www.reuters.com/legal/abortion-pill-lawsuit-faces-texas-judge-who-often-rules-conservatives-2023-02-10/
-https://www.npr.org/2022/05/05/1096732347/roe-v-wade-implications-beyond-abortion
-https://www.aclu.org/news/reproductive-freedom/abortion-case-lawsuit-ban-mifepristone
-https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/04/10/why-alliance-defending-freedom-hate-group
-https://www.justice.gov/olc/opinion/file/1560596/download