The past few years have seen an unprecedented number of attacks on women’s access to reproductive health services, but last week the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Arizona’s restrictions on medical abortion, a safe alternative to early surgical abortion.
These regulations, the harshest in the country, require that medication abortions be administered in strict adherence to FDA guidelines that are now over a decade out of date. Medical practice has changed significantly since those guidelines were written; current scientific consensus has clearly established that a lower dose of the medication is equally effective, has fewer side effects, and is cheaper.
While anti-choice regulations often masquerade as protecting women’s health, this bill clearly does the opposite by making it harder for women to access services and makes the medical abortion procedure less safe.
Furthermore, under these restrictions, many Arizona women would have to travel hundreds of miles to access abortion services.
Thankfully, judges have now recognized this law for what it is: an unconstitutional attack on women’s rights and women’s health.
This is a significant victory, as similar regulations have been passed in other states. While in Oklahoma and North Dakota, these burdensome and medically unnecessary restrictions have been blocked, similar provisions in Ohio and Texas have been upheld in federal courts.
The legal battle over abortion access will continue, and though women in Arizona’s access to medical abortions have been protected for the moment, the defendants hope to appeal this ruling in the Supreme Court.
LA Gov Jindal signed into law a bill which shuts down all Womens Centers in the state and allows a list of all MD’s names and addresses to be made public. Several other states are doing the same….hope you are planning to address this…I feel that all the issues we addressed in the 60’s, and worked so hard to achieve, are being taken away by extreme Right wing male dominated politicians. I was involved with NOW in the 60’s and 70’s…what can I do the help?????
Thank you for your time and attention.
Hi Ellen! Thanks for stopping by the blog. We always love getting comments from our supporters and activists.
One of the most important things you can do — if you’re not already — is get active with NOW in your state. I presume you are in Louisiana; if so, you can find chapters here: https://now.org/?state=LA&post_type=chapter
Thanks again for stopping by!
Caitlin Gullickson,
Senior Communications Associate