UNITED FOR DEMOCRACY: THE SUPREME COURT MUST PROTECT ACCESS TO MEDICATION ABORTION
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments for FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a case that could gut access to mifepristone – a drug used in nearly two-thirds of abortions nationwide. Reverend Dr. Cathy Clardy Patterson, CEO of Empowering Arizona and Sr. Pastor of the Fountain of Life Church in Scottsdale, Arizona; Jessica Brittain, Organizing Director for ActionTogether NEPA in Mountain Top, Pennsylvania; and Stasha Rhodes, Campaign Director of United for Democracy, a coalition of 130+ state and national organizations calling on Congress to fix the broken Supreme Court – issued the following statements.
Reverend Dr. Cathy Clardy Patterson, CEO of Empowering Arizona — a founding Coalition partner of United For Democracy — and Sr. Pastor of the Fountain of Life Church in Scottsdale said:
“In the wake of the Supreme Court’s consequential decision to overturn our constitutional abortion right, Arizona implemented a 15-week abortion ban and our state Supreme Court is considering an even more dangerous ban from 1864. Still, the attacks on Arizonans’ reproductive health and freedoms are far from over: Today, anti-abortion justices at the high Court heard oral arguments in a case aiming to take the medication abortion drug, mifepristone, off the shelves.
“A relentless power grab, not respect for faith, is motivating these attacks. Endangering key medicines and imposing restrictions that can lead to preventable suffering does not align with faith-based teachings. As the Supreme Court continues to prioritize the demands of its wealthy donors over the reproductive safety of millions of Americans, Congress must step in and fix the Court. Our lives depend on it.”
Jessica Brittain, Organizing Director of Action Together NEPA — a founding Coalition partner of United For Democracy — said:
“Today’s oral arguments in a case aiming to take medication abortion off the shelves – despite its higher safety rate than Tylenol — mark the first Supreme Court abortion case since the Dobbs decision overturned 50 years of precedent affirming our constitutional right to abortion. While Pennsylvania has been on the frontlines of defending abortion access, this new case could open our state — and even states that passed abortion-protection measures — up to new attacks.
“This sinister effort is a key part of a much larger scheme that would further allow justices and judges, who answer to anti-abortion billionaires and have never been near a medical school, to interfere with our personal health care decisions. As long as the Supreme Court remains unchecked, our bodily autonomy remains under threat. Congress must use its authority to restore the Supreme Court’s integrity before it’s too late.”
Stasha Rhodes, Campaign Director of United for Democracy, said:
“Two years after the MAGA justices — including three appointed by then-President Donald Trump — overturned the constitutional right to abortion, they are again in a position to ignore facts and precedent in order to deliver on their billionaire donors’ dangerous agenda. This time to undermine access to safe, effective abortion medication.
Two years ago, reproductive rights, health, and justice leaders rang the alarm — warning that Dobbs was just the beginning. Today’s arguments prove that more than true. Unless and until Congress stands up to the anti-abortion activists and justices, we will continue to watch our reproductive freedoms be dismantled in Court. Now is the time to hold our elected leaders accountable to doing just that.”