#HIVResists February Monthly Policy Update

Mifepristone is a safe, effective, and commonly-used medication for medication abortion. The FDA rigorously tested mifepristone prior to its approval over twenty years ago and decades of data have continued to confirm it is safe and effective. A bad ruling in this case could take mifepristone off the shelves nation-wide and bar health care professionals from prescribing it in every state in the nation. If this happens, people will still be able to use the misoprostol-only method for medication abortion (misoprostol is the second medication in the regimen as of now).

Nevertheless, a nationwide ban on mifepristone would create massive disruptions to abortion access in the U.S. The loss of FDA approval would not change mifepristone’s safety or efficacy. People have always self-managed abortions, regardless of politics or legal barriers, and will continue to do so with the love, support, care, and knowledge of our communities. The risk this decision poses is legal. It would open the door to increased surveillance and criminalization of communities who are most likely to self-manage abortion, especially Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) communities, queer, trans, and non-binary folx, rural communities, and people struggling to make ends meet. This case could also have far-reaching consequences for patients’ access to other FDA-approved medications by threatening the FDA’s authority over the medication approval process.  

The organization that filed this case has been labeled as a hate group and helped write the Mississippi law that the Supreme Court used to dismantle Roe v. Wade. They hand-picked a Texas district court judge, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, to hear the case. Kascmaryk is a Trump appointee who worked for an organization that aimed to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.

Everyone should be able to make decisions about their own reproductive lives and futures, including choosing the method of abortion that works best for them. This case is rooted in politics, racism, and sexism, not medicine. The decision has not come out yet, and medication abortion through mifepristone is still accessible. We will continue to monitor and stand in resistance and support of abortion care access through upcoming community actions and beyond.

• California politicians are disguising sweeps of people who are unhoused as “care” through a recently passed law that forces unhoused people into court-ordered treatment programs and unstable temporary housing.

• A commentary article shows that pregnant people are shackled and abused in a Harris County Jail. This example is illustrative of a wider human rights concern in the U.S., where pregnancy “care” is grossly harmful, negligent, or altogether nonexistent in prison, jail, and immigrant detention systems.  

• In a deeply disturbing display of white supremacy and targeted anti-Black racism, a supermajority of white politicians voted to advance a bill that would create a separate, unelected court system and an expanded police force within Jackson, Mississippi, a city home to a higher percentage of Black residents than any major American city. This is part of a pattern wherein majority-white state leaders attempt to remove decision-making power from Jackson residents, 83% of whom are Black, and instead put control in their own hands.