The Quickie: Rally for Reproductive Freedom with the VP Tomorrow
For Immediate Release: April 24, 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.
In today’s Quickie: VP Harris to join repro orgs at rally tomorrow, SCOTUS preserves mifepristone access, and RSVP for press call on Idaho AG abortion legal opinion today.
RALLY FOR REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM WITH THE VP: On Tuesday at Howard University, Vice President Kamala Harris will join reproductive rights organizations and advocates for a rally for reproductive freedom. The rally comes after the Supreme Court’s decision late Friday to grant a stay in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, blocking the lower courts’ dangerous rulings that would have severely restricted access to medication abortion.
*** Interested members of the press should RSVP HERE for media credentials by Tuesday, April 24 at 9:00 am ET **
SCOTUS PRESERVES MIFEPRISTONE ACCESS FOR FORESEEABLE FUTURE, WHILE COURT CASE CONTINUES: On Friday evening, the Supreme Court of the United States granted the stay requested by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and manufacturer Danco Laboratories in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA. This allows mifepristone’s FDA approval to remain unchanged as the case proceeds through the 5th Circuit and the Supreme Court, meaning that mifepristone will remain accessible and on the market for the foreseeable future.
Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, reacted to the news:
“We can take a breath, but we are not losing our vigilance. Anti-abortion politicians and their allies will not stop until abortion is banned nationwide… While mifepristone’s approval remains intact and it stays on the market for now, patients and health care providers shouldn’t be at the mercy of the court system.”
The public agrees: medication abortion should be available. New polling today from NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist confirms two-thirds of Americans oppose banning medication abortion, including majorities of Republicans and independents. Six in ten Americans also think judges should not be able to overturn FDA approvals.
Although mifepristone is accessible for now, as the Washington Post Editorial Board points out, “The news is more cause for relief than celebration, and certainly not cause for complacency… [T]he legal challenges to mifepristone will carry on as lower courts continue wrangling over the challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug, and the case could appear before the Supreme Court again before long. The fate of reproductive rights in the United States remains in the balance — and even more. Depending on how the courts handle the case, access to all kinds of treatments could be in jeopardy.”
EMERGENCY GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE LGBTQI+ COMMUNITY: Planned Parenthood Global is taking part in a rally tomorrow, Tuesday, April 24, as a stand against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill recently passed in the Ugandan Parliament criminalizing people who identify as LGBTQ and imposing the death penalty for some offenses. The #SayNOtoAHB23 rally will be held in two U.S. locations at 10:00 AM (ET) – at the Ugandan Embassy in Washington DC (5911 16th St. NW) and at the Permanent Mission of Uganda to the UN in New York City (336 E 45th St.)
RSVP: PRESS CALL TODAY AFTER IDAHO HEARING ON AG’S OPINION ON OUT-OF-STATE ABORTION REFERRALS: Today, lawyers at Planned Parenthood and ACLU of Idaho will answer questions from reporters regarding today’s federal district court hearing on Idaho AG Labrador’s legal opinion in which he claims that health care providers cannot refer patients out-of-state for abortion under Idaho law. Since the legal opinion was issued on March 27, providers in Idaho have been forced to withhold critical information from their patients who need abortion services about seeking care outside of the state.
The hearing will begin at 2 PM MT (4 PM ET). A virtual press availability with attorneys from Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the ACLU of Idaho will begin shortly after the hearing concludes. We expect this to begin around 5:30 PM ET.
All press call attendees must RSVP here to receive Zoom information. For more details on the hearing, please contact Olivia Cappello at PPFA.