Governor Healey Pledges to
Protect Access to Medication Abortion Following SCOTUS Oral Arguments
BOSTON – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments
in Food and Drug Administration, et al., v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the
most significant abortion rights case since this same Court overturned Roe v.
Wade in 2022. If the Supreme Court upholds the Fifth Circuit’s extreme ruling,
there will be severe impacts across the country, including restricting access
to the medication abortion mifepristone, straining the health care system
overall, undermining the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority, and
hindering the ability of Governors to protect the public health of their
constituents.
“Mifepristone has been safe and effective for more than 20
years. Restricting access to it would have severe consequences for women’s
reproductive health and our health care system as a whole. Additionally, this
decision would have wide ranging impacts on the integrity of the FDA approval
process needed to provide safe and effective health care services. As the
governor of a state that is a global hub for life sciences and health care, I’m
deeply concerned about the impacts this would have on medical innovation and
public health," said Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. “The high stakes
of this case are why I stood with my colleagues to call on the Supreme Court to
reject this attack on women's health and freedom. I also took action last year
to stockpile mifepristone and ensure that access is protected under state law.
In Massachusetts, mifepristone remains safe, legal and accessible – and we’ll
continue to protect access to reproductive health care for our residents every
step of the way.”
As the Reproductive Freedom Alliance’s amicus brief notes, “If
the Court affirms the decision below, the upshot will be harm all around: harm
to women, particularly rural and low-income women, who will be required to
visit in-person clinics simply to take a prescription medication, or may not be
able to access mifepristone for abortion or miscarriage management at all; harm
to providers, clinics, and health systems, who will be overwhelmed with demand;
harm to Governors, whose critical tools to safeguard public health will be
unnecessarily curbed; and harm to the public fisc, which will bear the brunt of
many of the economic costs of the decision.”
A link to the full amicus brief can be found here.
Last year, in response to the Texas federal court decision, Governor Healey took immediate action to protect access to mifepristone in Massachusetts. At her request, the University of Massachusetts and health care providers took action to stockpile doses of mifepristone, and she issued an Executive Order confirming protections for medication abortion under existing state law.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, medication abortions accounted for 63
percent of all U.S. abortions in 2023, an increase from 53 percent in 2020. In
Massachusetts, there were 21,430 abortions performed in 2023, up from 17,060 in
2020 – a 26 percent increase. In the same time period, nationwide, abortions
increased by 10 percent. Additionally, an estimated 400 more people traveled to
Massachusetts for abortion care in 2023 as compared to 2020.
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