Hundreds of citizens demonstrated this Saturday in several cities in the United States called by organizations in defense of the right to abortion to protest the sentence that restricts access to the abortion pill, following the decision of a Texas judge.
Carrying banners with messages such as “bans outside our bodies”, “abortion is health care” or “keep abortion legal”, hundreds of people gathered in cities like Washington to protest this new blow to women’s rights. to abort.
“We are losing rights. In the United States, the majority of citizens approve of abortion and it is ridiculous that a judge who has no right to do so would mess with this. We are very angry and we have to rebel,” Dena Lebowitz, one of the participants in the march organized by the Planned Parenthood organization, told EFE.
The Washington protest took place outside the Supreme Court, a few hours following the Supreme Court decided to temporarily block a lower court order restricting access to the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an order Friday freezing the decision until Wednesday at midnight, following the Justice Department filed an emergency request asking the court to intervene in the case.
After landing in the United States from Ireland, President Joe Biden referred to this case once more this Saturday: “It is scandalous what the (Texas) court has done, concluding that they are going to annul the decision of the FDA (the Food Administration and Drugs). I think it’s out of his domain, but we’ll see what happens, ”he told the press as he got off the presidential plane.
The organization Planned Parenthood, which defends high-quality affordable medical and reproductive care in the country, organized several marches in cities such as South Dakota, Texas, Chicago and Florida, and other events will be held this Sunday to protest this new case that further restricts the right to abortion.
Members of the medical community participated in the Washington event, denouncing that medical professionals cannot provide quality care where abortion restrictions are in effect.
“My patients should be able to receive the highest level of care without stigma, without judgment, and without medically untrained judges telling them what type of care they can or cannot receive,” Divya Shenoy, director of primary care, said at the event. at Planned Parenthood, who called the move to ban mifepristone “the antithesis” of his medical practice.
After the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion at the federal level in June 2022, dozens of states governed by Republicans restricted this practice and, according to Planned Parenthood, 18 of the 50 states prohibited abortion or severely restricted it, and in 13, access to this service is practically impossible, although there are exceptions.
At the center of the current legal dispute is the health authorization that the FDA gave 23 years ago to mifepristone, used in more than half of the abortions in the country.
A Texas judge’s decision to withdraw the FDA’s health authorization for the pill was upheld in part by a Louisiana appeals court last Wednesday, and the restrictions were to go into effect this Saturday.
In its ruling, the court stipulated that the drug can be available only up to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, three less than previously, and that it must be picked up in person.
The Department of Justice argued before the Supreme Court that, if it entered into force, the restriction on mifepristone would have serious consequences both for those who want to abort as well as for the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA.
The decision of the Supreme Court gave until Tuesday at noon for the plaintiffs to present their response. In this way, the magistrates have time to study whether or not they decide to formally grant a suspension of the sentence that restricts access to the drug at the national level.
