The Quickie: What's Happening at SCOTUS Today?
For Immediate Release: April 19, 2023
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
Good afternoon, readers! Anyone else obsessively refreshing SCOTUSblog today?
In today’s Quickie: what’s happening at SCOTUS today, near total abortion ban advances in ND, and new doctors avoid residencies in states with abortion bans.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT SCOTUS TODAY?: Tonight at 11:59:59 PM ET, the administrative stay of the lower courts’ decisions in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA granted by Justice Alito will expire. Here are the potential actions that the Supreme Court could take today and their impact on mifepristone access. From a patient and provider perspective, there are really only two outcomes: people will still be able to access the evidence-based, high quality abortion care; or that care will be jeopardized.
PRESERVING STATUS QUO ACCESS TO MIFEPRISTONE:
- Granting a stay on the lower courts’ decisions, which was requested by the Department of Justice and manufacturer Danco Laboratories. The court could then either allow the case to progress through the lower courts or take up the case itself.
- Extending the administrative stay that Justice Alito initially granted on Friday afternoon.
RESTRICTING MIFEPRISTONE ACCESS:
- No action, allowing the 5th Circuit ruling to take effect.
- Denying the stay of the lower courts’ decisions. The court would then either allow the case to progress in the Fifth Circuit or take the case itself.
Listen to Carrie Flaxman, Senior Director of Public Policy Litigation & Law at PPFA, explain the stakes of the case on NPR Up First:
“If the Supreme Court does not step in and block the decisions below, the majority of mifepristone supply could disappear. This judicial ping pong game impacting accessibility of safe, effective, decades-long approved medication is causing chaos and confusion.”
NEAR TOTAL ABORTION BAN IN NORTH DAKOTA PASSES HOUSE: On Monday, the North Dakota House passed a six-week abortion ban. This move comes nearly one month after the North Dakota Supreme Court blocked the state’s trigger ban from taking effect, citing the fundamental right to life saving and health preserving abortions.
“It's heartbreaking and frustrating to watch a near to abortion ban pass the North Dakota House after the Supreme Court recognized the right to life saving and health preserving abortions,” Katie Christensen, North Dakota State Director, External Affairs for Planned Parenthood North Dakota Action Fund, said in a statement. “Abortion is essential health care, and North Dakotans deserve to make decisions about their bodies and futures. The North Dakota legislature fails to understand the basics of pregnancy and display special cruelty to survivors of rape and sexual assault by further stripping them of bodily autonomy. The Senate should reject the bill and keep abortion safe and legal in North Dakota.”
As AP reports, North Dakota has among the highest percentages of Indigenous people in the country. Banning abortion in states like North Dakota disproportionately denies critical health care to Indigenous people and other traditionally underserved communities, exacerbating existing health care inequities. Traveling out-of-state for care is not always feasible due to the massive distances and cost.
Read more at ABC.
MORE NEW PHYSICIANS AVOID RESIDENCIES IN STATES WITH ABORTION BANS: Last week, the Association of American Medical Colleges published new data illustrating a new concerning trend: states with total abortion bans had a 10.5% decrease in OB/GYN applicants to residency programs this year. This drop in applications could exacerbate the already existing lack of maternal health care in those states, especially as physicians tend to practice in the state where they did their residency.
States with abortion bans already have the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. We’ve also seen the impact that abortion restrictions have on OB/GYN availability, especially in rural communities. Two rural hospitals in Idaho, which has a near-total abortion ban, announced that they would stop labor and delivery services due to staffing shortages.
Read more at Axios.