Democratic Women’s Caucus and Pro-Choice Caucus Rally in Advance of SCOTUS Deadline to Protect Access to Medication Abortion

***WATCH A LIVE STREAM OF THE EVENT HERE***

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, leaders from the Pro-Choice Caucus (PCC) and the Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC), joined by leaders from the Congressional Progressive Caucus, led a press conference on Democrats’ continuing fight to protect access to medication abortion.

In advance of the Supreme Court’s deadline at midnight—when their stay in the case of Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA expires—the lawmakers made clear that regardless of what happens next, they will continue to fight to ensure access to medication abortion and restore the right to abortion across the country.

“This disastrous decision not only threatens to deny millions of women access to the care they need, but it also threatens to upend our nation’s entire drug approval process. Everybody should have the freedom to make their own health care decisions, including whether to seek abortion care. We’re not going to sit back and allow a single judge in Texas to put the nation’s health at risk. If the Supreme Court doesn’t act to protect women’s access to medication abortion, Congress must,” said Rep. Diana DeGette (CO-01), Pro-Choice Caucus (PCC) Co-Chair.

“For two decades, mifepristone has been a safe, effective option for abortion care – and today, the Supreme Court faces a clear choice: uphold legal and scientific fact or capitulate to MAGA extremism,” said Whip Clark. “As Republicans continue marching toward a nationwide abortion ban, House Democrats will never stop fighting to end the GOP assault on women and freedom.”

“A woman’s decision whether or not to take mifepristone should be between her and her doctor, not any politician. And the availability of mifepristone should be up to the FDA—and the legions of experts and scientists that work there—not one judge from Amarillo, Texas. The Supreme Court’s administrative stay expires at midnight tonight, so we’ll know more soon, but no matter what comes next, Democrats are absolutely not backing down,” said Rep. Lois Frankel (FL-22), Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) Chair. “We’re going to keep fighting back—in the courts, in our districts, and right here in Congress—until women have full control over their bodies and health care. And until we restore Roe and pass the Women’s Health Protection Act.”

“I am one of the one-in-four women in America who have had an abortion. For me, terminating my pregnancy was not an easy choice, but it was MY choice. It is an intensely private decision, to be made between you, your loved ones and your doctors. We don’t want Supreme Court Justices or state elected officials telling us what we can or can’t do. We don’t want someone else dictating our economic freedom to choose when we want to have a family so that we can be sure to take care of that family. And we know the majority of Americans of all political stripes are with us. The Supreme Court may go further in its attack on access to abortion care while at the same time throwing into chaos the entire scientific process for approving drugs. But Democrats, as the party of family and freedom, will continue to organize, fight for access to abortion rights, and we will win,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair.

“[This case] is about liberty and justice for all. Women must stand up and demand, ‘Where is my liberty? Where is my justice?’ Women should be able to make a decision on their own with the advice of their doctor. Whether a woman wants to be a mother today or 5 years from now, that is our decision, and that is at risk with this recent ruling from an unelected judge in Texas,” said Rep. Norma Torres (CA-35), PCC Vice Chair.

“The federal court’s decision to revoke FDA approval of mifepristone replaces decades of scientific evidence with extreme political ideology and strips women across the nation of their ability to access this crucial form of abortion care,” said Rep. Kathy Manning (NC-06), DWC Policy Co-Chair. “If this radical decision is allowed to stand, it will undermine the regulatory authority of the FDA, which was granted to it by Congress nearly eighty years ago. What’s more, it would set the stage for other FDA-approved drugs to be challenged in federal court. I am leading this resolution reaffirming the FDA’s authority to approve abortion care medications – and all medications – to push back on this reckless court decision.” 

“In Texas, we’re no stranger to forum shopping by highly-partisan litigants – but this decision is uniquely dangerous. If allowed to stand, the consequences of banning this medication would be catastrophic for millions of American women and mothers. And the pain would fall most heavily on Black women, Brown women, and low-income women of all races who have the least access to affordable, accessible medical care,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), DWC Member Services Co-Chair. “We are not taking these attacks lying down - on Friday, I co-lead a resolution with Reps. Angie Craig and Josh Gottheimer that would protect doctor-prescribed access to the abortion pill mifepristone and support telemedicine across state lines, so doctors can prescribe the abortion medication wherever women are in need of health care. If the politicians passing these restrictive abortion laws in the dead of night thought they could beat us down and take what we’ve fought and died for, they’re sorely mistaken.”

Last week, in a middle-of-the-night decision, two Trump-appointed judges on the Fifth Circuit voted 2-1 to largely reject the Biden Administration’s request for a stay of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s harmful district court decision suspending FDA approval of mifepristone. Since then, the Supreme Court put an administrative stay in place until Wednesday at 11:59 PM ET—temporarily halting both Judge Kacsmaryk’s and the Fifth Circuit’s ruling until the Supreme Court weighs in on the case.

Though mifepristone remains accessible for now, its FDA approval and access is still under threat. If the Supreme Court upholds either of these decisions, the chaos it would unleash would force delays and denial of essential abortion care. It would also continue an unprecedented pattern of judges substituting political ideology for the FDA’s well-documented scientific and evidence-based review process, recklessly undermining the FDA’s authority.

While 253 House Democrats have filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court urging them to ensure access to medication abortion is based on science not ideology, 147 Republican members of Congress have filed a brief urging the Court to uphold Judge Kacsmaryk’s dangerous decision undermining the FDA and access to medication abortion.

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