Latino Network Statement on Court Rulings on Availability of Mifepristone

Latino Network urges the Supreme Court to swiftly and conclusively move to protect access to mifepristone, a drug that is used to help induce medical abortions by overturning the recent rulings by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and by a Texas-based U.S. District Judge that seek to reverse the FDA’s approval of mifepristone and impose a national ban. These attacks on an important reproductive health procedure are purely political, seek to control individuals’ bodily autonomy, and are not based in science. Abortion restrictions disproportionately affect Black, Latino, Indigenous, and other people of color, making access to abortion an issue of economic, health, and racial justice. Moreover, around 60% of all abortions in Oregon are performed with medication abortions; as a result, the politically-motivated outlawing of this entirely safe drug would have a huge adverse effect on the ability of Oregonians to access reproductive health care.

In the meantime, medication abortion is still legal in Oregon. Latino Network continues to work hand in hand with our community partners, reproductive justice and reproductive rights groups to educate the community on how to access abortion and to ensure that the state strengthens existing laws in Oregon that allow pregnant people to have full access to the range of healthcare they need. Everyone should be able to decide if, when, and how they want to become a parent.