Today, the Human Rights Campaign reacted to the Supreme Court’s decision related to Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a case challenging the FDA’s approval of the medication abortion pill, mifepristone. The Court stayed a district court decision banning the medication nationwide, thereby allowing mifepristone to remain available pending a final determination in the case.

President of The Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robinson, issued the following statement:

“Today, the Supreme Court made the right decision. After months of our reproductive freedom being stripped away brick-by-brick, we’re allowed a collective sigh of relief knowing that medication abortion access has been maintained — for now. Not only do we need access to safe, legal abortion care, but we need the assurance that a partisan-appointed judge does not have the power to take away any of our medication for political grandstanding. Thank you to all of the reproductive rights organizations, organizers and allies that are fighting to ensure that women and LGBTQ+ people continue to have the right to make personal, informed decisions to access mifepristone.”

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed extremist who is radically anti-LGBTQ, was the first to rule to remove mifepristone from the marketplace, which was an unprecedented move by a federal judge. Furthermore, The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a certified anti-LGBTQ hate group, brought this case to court on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. ADF also brought the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case which overturned Roe v. Wade, as well as the Masterpiece Cakeshop case that sought to allow a wedding cake shop to refuse to serve same-sex couples. ADF is one of the leading groups supporting anti-LGBTQ legislation in the states as well.

Studies have found that medication abortion accounts for more than half of abortions in the U.S. Last year, HRC released a fact sheet that highlights the importance of reproductive freedom for members of the LGBTQ+ community. The data shows that LGBTQ+ women who have been pregnant are more likely to have had unwanted or mistimed pregnancies than heterosexual women and are more likely to need abortion services as well. Specifically, the report found Lesbian (22.8%) and bisexual (27.2%) women who have been pregnant are more likely than heterosexual women (15.4%) who have been pregnant to have had an abortion according to an analysis of the 2017-2019 National Survey for Family Growth (NSFG) conducted by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.