For Immediate Release: June 13, 2024
Contact: Virginia Lucy, media@napawf.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) released its highly anticipated decision in the case, U.S. Food and Drug Administration vs. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, regarding access to mifepristone, one of two pills used in most medication abortions and oftentimes for medically necessary abortions. Its decision rejects the plaintiffs’ standing to bring such a lawsuit, and sustains access to medication abortion and lifesaving medical care.
This was the first abortion-related case that SCOTUS agreed to hear since it overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Medication abortion is critical to guaranteeing the bodily autonomy of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) women, who, like all women of color and marginalized people, face multiple, intersecting barriers to traditional in-person abortion care. NAPAWF, along with our national partners, filed an amicus brief to the court detailing the potential impact of this case on AANHPI communities. This brief included findings from NAPAWF’s report on medication abortion usage and knowledge among AANHPI women and girls.
Sung Yeon Choimorrow, NAPAWF’s Executive Director, released the following statement:
“NAPAWF is relieved that today’s SCOTUS decision will sustain access to medication abortion. This decision means that, for now, access to this highly effective, safe, and life-saving medication will remain unchanged. Attempts to limit access to mifepristone signal that anti-abortion extremists have no limits to their widespread efforts to limit our bodily autonomy. We know these efforts will cause disproportionate harm to women of color.
While today’s decision is good news, it is absurd this case was ever considered by the highest court in the nation. This also shows that we still have a long way to go before achieving true reproductive justice in this country. Several states have already banned or restricted medication abortion and we expect that, regardless of the outcome of this case, those efforts will continue. Meaningful reproductive justice includes the right to abortion, as well as the right to quality maternal care, equal pay, access to healthcare, paid leave, affordable childcare, and the right to make our own medical and fertility decisions.
That’s why Congress and the Biden Administration must enact legislative solutions for reproductive health, including a comprehensive set of laws and policies to ensure that all reproductive health care is affordable and accessible to everyone, regardless of income, immigration status, or location. It is unsustainable for AANHPI women in this country to constantly be holding our breath while waiting for extremists to legislate away our rights and abuse the judicial process to further their political agenda. We deserve protection and access to health care and reproductive health care now.”
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The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) is the only organization dedicated to uplifting and building power with AANHPI women and girls in the US. Employing a reproductive justice framework to guide our work, we use organizing, advocacy, and communications strategies to assert full agency over our lives, our families, and our communities.