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A US Supreme Court ruling that temporarily reinstated nationwide access to a widely used abortion pill is about to expire. On May 1st, a federal appeals court made a ruling that rolled back teley medicine access to Miffforristton, a drug that could be prescribed by a doctor over the phone and sent through the mail. Now, the Supreme Court later decided to restore access while litigation continues, but its future usage remains up in the air. Here to tell us more is Julie F. Kay. She's a human rights lawyer and CEO of Reproductive Futures. Miss Kay, thank you very much for joining us this evening. It's very early morning on May the 11th there in New York City where you are. What is the Supreme Court scheduled to do today when it comes to
prescribing MFPristan? Well, thank you. They have to take some decision regarding whether they're going to allow the in-person restriction on access to medication abortion to go back into effect or not. So they have several pathways they can choose to do this. But I think their initial recognition of the harm that was caused when Louisiana uh was victorious at the lower court and said that they had to put this uh medically unnecessary requirement that a woman go and physically pick up the pills in person back into place. So we're hoping they'll extend that stay. Let the court do its job. let the Federal Food and Drug Administration do its job of recognizing that this medication is safe and effective. But
we're living in a very heated political landscape around abortion in the US right now. What's at stake here? What kind of implications has this back and forth had on women's reproductive rights across the United States? Well, since the fall of Row versus Wade, it's really changed the landscape in the United States. about half the states very quickly put in some very restrictive and harmful bans on abortion. Um sometimes all of abortion without even a life-saving exception, sometimes anything after 6 weeks. And the other half of the states have uh been a lot less hostile, have recognized the human rights and health implication and have been serving women from other states who can't get uh medical
treatment in their own state. So we've seen a real patchwork effect and tele medicine has been key to that. About 30% of all abortions in the United States are through tele medicine right now, which means that a licensed practitioner sends the appropriate medication to a patient who's been screened regardless of where that patient's living. So this case by Louisiana has really been an attack on all tele medicine nationwide. It's trying to take one of the safe and effective medications, methopristone, out of women's hands and leaving them even within their own state uh unable to get abortion access even if their state has decided that it's legal and safe and the right thing to do.
And why is Louisiana in particular fighting this? Well, Louisiana has seen that it's lost uh on restricting women's access to abortion. They've been quite vicious on trying to uh ban all abortion as well as they have uh falsely mclassified myristone as a controlled substance which would be normally an addictive drug or one that you'd seen like an opioid those kinds of things. And so now they're trying to through this one lawsuit restrict all women's access nationwide to meristone. And there's really no medical reason to have to travel to pick up the medication. We've seen tele medicine work. It's safe. It's effective. It's by a licensed prescription. It's quite common in the US and globally, including in Australia.
And so, this is just another attempt to try to undermine the science and undermine access to abortion. And particularly for the most underresourced women, for those who can't travel because they lack transportation, they live in rural areas, they have child care or other caregiving commitments, they can't get time off from work. There's a reason that women have been choosing tele medicine uh and that continues to grow in the United States. and that really uh is a threat to the anti-abortion movement's attempt to put it out of reach for any person in the US. You mentioned before that um it's quite a politically uh fragmented time in the United States at the moment. Where is the Trump administration in all this
because Republicans are traditionally against abortion, but Trump himself seems to be leaving it up to the states to decide where they stand on the issue. Well, I think that's certainly the impression that he and the administration would want you to have. I think that is the question. It's a real, you know, where is the Trump administration on this? They uh the FDA, the Department of Justice literally did not file briefs in response in this latest round at the Supreme Court, which is really unheard of. Um, I think with the midterm elections coming up in November, that's sort of how far in advance we prepare for them in the
United States, uh, abortion is very much uh on the table. It is an issue that Americans uh deeply support the right uh to uh abortion, medication abortion, all kinds of rights of access. Um, they support the Row versus Wade framework. And Trump is the president who really was responsible for making sure that Row versus Wade was overturned. He appointed the very conservative justices that created the majority that were willing to overturn 50 years of established president in the US. So right now I think he's just wishing this whole issue would go away. I think he uh wants Louisiana to pursue this and sort of the have his cake and eat it too. But I mean Americans know uh we know his position
on this. We know that abortion rights are extremely important. We just need to vote the way that we'll preserve and protect those rights and not let Louisiana do this end run and kind of have a nationwide effect of banning a very effective medication. And it won't take tele medicine off the table and it won't take abortion off the table, but it will make sure that women have to pivot to other methods that aren't as pleasant and that have side effects that are unnecessary. What risks are doctors taking in prescribing abortion pills and mythopristone to women in anti-abortion states? Have there been any convictions or anything like that?
No. So, uh, my organization, Reproductive Futures, has worked hard on what are called tele medicine abortion shield laws. And those are laws in eight states that allow, uh, clinicians to prescribe medication abortion regardless of where the patient lives. So, they can be in New York and prescribe to Louisiana or Texas or Alabama. And the state of New York and seven other states say, "We're going to protect them. We're going to shield them. They're licensed practitioners. They're following New York law. They're sitting in New York or one of the other seven states. And so those have been very effective. Uh so far there have been two attempts to go after one doctor in California and one
in New York. And the governors of those states have said, "No, we're not going to extradite these doctors to hostile states. We've seen another civil case trying to go after a doctor for money damages that was rejected by the court." So we know that these shield laws stand strong. Um and we're going to continue to fight to protect them. Julie FK, the CEO of Reproductive Futures. We appreciate your time. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you so much.
