Nearly 600 Democratic state legislators signed a letter protesting a federal judge’s ruling reversing the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, saying that “the health and well-being of our constituents, for whom we were appointed to office to protect, is at grave risk.”
The 588 lawmakers who signed up come from every state except North Dakota, a sign of how the party views promoting access to mifepristone, one of two drugs involved in medical abortion, and defending the Drug Administration. and Food from political interference as a winning issue even in conservative quarters.
“Keeping abortion legal and accessible is backed by the will of the people, and the movement will not stop because of a decision in a legal case with factual and procedural flaws brought to court by anti-abortion extremists,” Jennifer said. Driver, director of reproductive rights at the State Innovation Exchange, the liberal network of state legislators that organized the letter. “With this letter, state legislators across the country make it clear that everyone deserves access to a full range of reproductive health options and that we must keep mifepristone on the shelves, not eliminate it.”
The pharmaceutical industry, major medical groups and Democrats have criticized the ruling by Matt Kacsmaryk, a federal district judge in Texas appointed by President Donald Trump. They argue that the ruling substitutes the scientific judgment of FDA experts for Kacsmaryk’s impeachment and threatens the prescription drug industry in general.
The legislators’ letter echoes those arguments.
“Over the past two decades, researchers have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of mifepristone through rigorous peer-reviewed research studies,” the letter states. “As the most common form of medical abortion, mifepristone has a higher safety record than Tylenol. As state legislators, we trust the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve drugs like mifepristone for our constituents through a highly scientific, not a political, process. We are concerned that the preliminary injunction issued by Judge Kascmaryk in Texas will set a dangerous precedent for how we review and approve drugs as a nation moving forward.”
The fight also comes as state legislators across the country fight for abortion rights in the new landscape created by last year’s Supreme Court decision that struck down the Roe v. Wade. In North Carolina, state Rep. Julie von Haefen (D) has introduced legislation to expand access to medical abortion, even as a new Republican supermajority means more abortion restrictions could be on the way.
“We are one of the only states left in the South where abortion is legal up to 20 weeks,” said von Haefen, one of the signatories to the letter. “This decision could be devastating for us, in a state where so many people come for care.”
Meanwhile, in Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed a repeal of a century-old abortion ban earlier this month. Another signatory to the letter, state Sen. Erika Geiss, said the success of the Democrats in the state in the 2022 midterm elections demonstrated that abortion rights are a winning issue for the party.
“People are very interested in this topic,” Geiss said. “They didn’t want health care providers criminalized for doing their job.”
Mifepristone is used in more than half of abortions in the United States, according to FDA data, and public polls show broad support for it to remain legal. TO Pew Research Center Survey found that 53% of Americans thought abortion medication should be legal in their state, while only 22% said it should be illegal. Conservative Republicans were the only subgroup of the population who clearly thought that drugs should be illegal.
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