The 22 governors that formed the Reproductive Freedom Alliance, which includes Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in support of preserving abortion medication availability across the U.S.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case last fall. The question before the court is whether the FDA must return to its 2016 regulations around mifepristone, which would require a physician to prescribe mifepristone in person to the abortion patient.
The FDA approved mifepristone as part of the two-step abortion regime in 2000 and in 2016 loosened its rules to allow advanced practice clinicians to prescribe the drug. After the COVID-19 pandemic began, the FDA reconsidered its regulations around mifepristone and removed the requirement that patients must travel to an abortion clinic to obtain the medicine.
The Reproductive Freedom Alliance wrote in their brief that the consequences of returning mifepristone to 2016 regulations would be “severe.” In the face of a physician shortage, the need to return to an in-person physician visit in order to obtain mifepristone would put a significant strain on the healthcare community and potentially lead to more self-managed abortions, the brief states. It would put a greater strain on individuals who live in rural areas and are low-income because it would remove telehealth options for abortion medication, the brief states.
“New Mexico has seen the impact of the Dobbs decision directly and has stepped up to provide reproductive health care for thousands of women who have lost access to services,” Lujan Grisham said through a news release. “Millions more will lose access if this decision is allowed to stand. We cannot and will not allow that to happen.”