The Quickie: Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Mifepristone Case
For Immediate Release: Dec. 13, 2023
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
In today’s Quickie: The Supreme Court agrees to hear mifepristone case, former Planned Parenthood litigator’s confirmation hearing, and Arizona’s Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in pivotal abortion ban case.
SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR MIFEPRISTONE CASE: This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine et al v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration et al. This case is at the heart of the anti-abortion movement’s effort to end FDA’s approval of mifepristone, a medication that has been FDA-approved for more than 23 years and is one of two medicines most commonly used in medication abortion in the United States. The availability of mifepristone is essential to abortion access nationwide.
The Supreme Court will consider the case in its current term. If the Supreme Court had not agreed to hear the case the Fifth Circuit’s ruling had been allowed to stand which would have reinstated unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, gave the following statement:
“We are pleased the Supreme Court has decided to hear this case, and it should reverse the extreme decisions of the lower courts. The facts are clear: mifepristone is safe and effective. This case has put the approval of mifepristone — and every other FDA-approved medication — at risk nationwide for political reasons, and has caused confusion for patients across the country. As this case continues, mifepristone remains on the market and FDA-approved.”
Read Planned Parenthood’s full statement here.
FORMER PLANNED PARENTHOOD LITIGATOR NOMINATED TO SERVE ON FOURTH CIRCUIT APPEARS BEFORE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Today, Nicole Berner, a former Planned Parenthood litigator who is nominated to be a federal judge on the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearing. A longtime public servant and advocate for labor rights and reproductive rights, if confirmed, she would be only the third out lesbian on any U.S. circuit court — and the first to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Watch the hearing here.
Read more about her background here and here.
ADVOCATES REMIND ARIZONA SUPREME COURT OF HIGH STAKES FOR ABORTION ACCESS:Yesterday, Arizona’s Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that will determine the future of abortion access in the state. If the court decides that a lower court wrongly harmonized the state’s conflicting abortion laws to implement a 15-week ban, a near-total ban from the nineteenth century could become the law of the land.
As we’ve seen in other states, a near-total ban would result in devastating consequences for Arizonans. Dr. Jill Gibson, Chief Medical Officer at Planned Parenthood Arizona, outlined the potential impact it would have for people in the state:
“Abortion is essential health care and criminalizing abortion does not change that fact. Instead, abortion bans and restrictions force people to carry forced pregnancies, seek abortion outside of the health care system, or bear the financial burden of traveling hundreds or thousands of miles for care. Abortion bans not only negatively impact individual lives, they impact families and generations, and perpetuate other systems of oppression.
“A near-total ban on abortion in our state would be catastrophic to the well-being of our communities and deeply out of touch with the will of the majority of Arizonans. Arizonans deserve the freedom to make their own decisions about their reproductive health. The Arizona Supreme Court has the opportunity to refuse this bleak future and reject this egregious threat to reproductive health care. Our community deserves better – we deserve a right to make our own decisions about our bodies and our health. And I will not stop fighting for my patients and our communities.”