Tag Archives: mifepristone

Louisiana becomes first state to label mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances

Abortion-Pill-Illustration-by-Natalie-Peeples-Axios

Important Takeaways:

  • Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, submitted the legislation after his sister, a Texas resident, unknowingly consumed an abortion pill after her husband put it in her drink.
  • A person caught with the drugs without a prescription could face up to five years in prison and have to pay a fine of up to $5,000.
  • But the law couldn’t be used to prosecute a pregnant person who holds the drugs for their own use, even without a prescription
  • The bill began as an effort to criminalize giving someone abortion drugs without their knowledge, and the reclassification was later added as an amendment.
  • The new law creates the crime of “coerced criminal abortion.”

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Supreme Court unanimously rejects bid to restrict access to abortion pill – they did not have legal standing to sue

Supreme-Court-Abortion-Pill-ruling

Important Takeaways:

  • The court found that anti-abortion doctors who questioned the FDA’s easing of access to the pill did not have legal standing to sue
  • In a blow for anti-abortion advocates, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone, meaning the commonly used drug can remain widely available.
  • President Joe Biden said in a statement that while the ruling means the pill can remain easily accessible, “the fight for reproductive freedom continues” in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling two years ago that overturned abortion rights landmark Roe v. Wade.
  • Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the court, wrote that while plaintiffs have “sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections to elective abortion and to FDA’s relaxed regulation of mifepristone,” that does not mean they have a federal case.
  • Another regulatory decision left in place means women can still obtain the pill within 10 weeks of gestation instead of seven.
  • Likewise, a decision to allow health care providers other than physicians to dispense the pill will remain in effect.

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Appeals court ruled abortion pill remains available but limits access

Mifepristone-abortion-pill

Important Takeaways:

  • There will likely be a showdown at the Supreme Court over a widely used abortion pill.
  • A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that mifepristone can remain on the market, but the judges would reimpose prior restrictions that could limit access to the medication.
  • This includes preventing the drug from being mailed directly to patients and changing the approved use of the pill from up to 10 weeks into pregnancy back down to seven weeks.
  • This all comes as the legal battle over medication abortion has escalated over the past few months with the outcome having the potential to once again reshape the country’s abortion landscape.
  • The Biden administration has already said it’s planning to fight the ruling
  • Erin Hawley, an attorney for the group filing the lawsuit, said she was pleased with the court’s decision despite arguing the pill shouldn’t have been approved in the first place. Hawley, who is married to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), said her team hasn’t decided whether to appeal the portion of the ruling that went against them.

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South Korea proposes compromise abortion law after landmark court ruling

By Sangmi Cha

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea on Wednesday proposed allowing abortion up until the fourteenth week of pregnancy as part of a new law designed to comply with a landmark ruling by the constitutional court that struck down a decades-long ban.

South Korea criminalized abortion in 1953 when its leaders wanted to boost the population, but exceptions to the law were introduced in 1973, including when the pregnancy was caused by a sexual crime.

However, the Constitutional Court overturned the ban in April last year, saying it unconstitutionally curbed women’s rights and ordering the government to come up with a new law.

Under the new proposal, abortion would be banned after 14 weeks except in the case of a sex crime, or if the health of the mother is at risk, or if the fetus shows signs of severe birth defects, in which case abortion would be allowed up to 24 weeks, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

It also allowed the use of the drug mifepristone for performing abortions.

The proposal drew criticism from both sides of the debate, with women’s rights groups arguing that the law is still focused on punishing women.

Instead, any law should focus on how to safely provide the procedure, the Joint Action for Reproductive Justice in Seoul said in a statement.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea issued a statement opposing the justice ministry decision, saying that children should be protected “from the very moment of conception.”

Ahead of the court’s ruling, opinion polls showed around three-quarters of South Koreans supported dropping the ban.

South Korea has a fertility rate of 1.1 births per woman, the lowest of 198 countries and falling far behind the global average of 2.4, according to the 2020 United Nations Population Fund report.