Delaware Attorney General, Del. Planned Parenthood CEO detail future of Mifepristone access
DELAWARE – Two dueling decisions on the federal level now have thrown the future of FDA-approved abortion medication Mifepristone into the balance, with potential impacts to local laws, access, and patient care.
Delaware, Maryland, and 15 other states joined in a lawsuit in Washington State to require the FDA to not drop certification of the abortion pill, just hours after a federal judge in Texas ruled that the FDA certification for the drug was invalid and aimed to cut access across the nation.
For those 17 states party to the lawsuit, the Washington case protects access, with only a Federal Appeals Court or Supreme Court ruling having the power to reverse the decision.
“The 17 states that sued in Washington and the judge that prevailed there, they are safe,” said Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, adding that the Texas decision that spurred the push to protect access “so stunningly and fragrantly in violation of settled law.”
“We are still here, and we will continue to provide medication for abortion, the medication will be a little different depending on what happens but we will have what you need,” said Delaware Planned Parenthood President and CEO Ruth Ltyle-Barnaby.
Barnaby tells 47 ABC that she believes the Texas ruling will most negatively impact those seeking abortions in states where it is already illegal and will disproportionately impact low-income and minority patients.
“In doing this cruelty really becomes the point it’s all about cruelty to patients,” she said.
Attorney General Jennings tells us that while unlikely, the protections for the 17 states could still be stripped by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, or by the Supreme Court, by arguing the administration of Mifepristone as unconstitutional.
‘That would be extremely unusual for the SCOTUS to rule that the FDA approval of Mifepristone decades ago was unlawful because that would open up Pandora’s box to the FDA’s authority to determine when a drug is safe in this country but also Pandora’s box of every other drug,” Jennings said.
However unlikely, it’s an outcome that Ltyle-Barnaby says Planned Parenthood is preparing for.
“What we have done is purchased much more misoprostol which can also be used to facilitate an abortion so if the ruling takes effect we are able to see our patients and provide them with the care that they are asking for,” she said, adding that surgery also remains an option, though not one predominantly chosen by those seeking their care.
“We serve hundreds of people a month, 65 to 75 percent of our patients receive the medication for abortion, that’s most of our patients,” she said.
Attorney General Jennings tells 47ABC that she is working to help healthcare providers maintain access and stockpile mifepristone, ahead of what she says will be a certain Supreme Court Case.
“I expect them to vote in Favor of the FDA based on their Roe decision that left it to the states,” she said.
The temporary pause on the Texas lawsuit that would restrict access to all states where abortion is illegal, is expected to be lifted Friday.
