Pennsylvania launches abortion access website after Texas ruling
HARRISBURG (KDKA/AP) — Pennsylvania launched a website for reproductive health care resources after a Texas judge's unprecedented ruling halting approval of the nation's most common method of abortion.
Gov. Josh Shapiro said U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk's ruling doesn't affect the ability of residents or non-residents to get abortion services in Pennsylvania.
The new website unveiled on Monday helps users find a provider near them, make a plan and get financial support.
"Your rights and freedoms here in Pennsylvania have not changed - you can get a safe, legal medication abortion using mifepristone in our Commonwealth," Shapiro said in a news release. "As your Governor, I believe decisions on reproductive care are to be made between women and their doctors, not extremist politicians or radical court rulings. Let's be clear: this Texas judge's attempt to restrict access to medication abortions is just another attack on a woman's right to choose. This is about protecting our freedoms, and I won't back down from that fight."
Access to the most commonly used method of abortion in the U.S. plunged into uncertainty Friday following conflicting court rulings over the legality of the abortion medication mifepristone that has been widely available for more than 20 years.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, ordered a hold on federal approval of mifepristone in a decision that overruled decades of scientific approval. But that decision came at nearly the same time that U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice, an Obama appointee, essentially ordered the opposite and directed U.S. authorities not to make any changes that would restrict access to the drug in at least 17 states where Democrats sued in an effort to protect availability.
The extraordinary timing of the competing orders revealed the high stakes surrounding the drug nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and curtailed access to abortion across the country. President Joe Biden said his administration would fight the Texas ruling.
The whiplash of the conflicting decisions is likely to put the issue on an accelerated path to the Supreme Court.
The abortion drug has been widely used in the U.S. since securing FDA approval and there is essentially no precedent for a lone judge overruling the medical decisions of the Food and Drug Administration. Mifepristone is one of two drugs used for medication abortion in the United States, along with misoprostol, which is also used to treat other medical conditions.
Kacsmaryk signed an injunction directing the FDA to stay mifepristone's approval while a lawsuit challenging the safety and approval of the drug continues. His 67-page order gave the government seven days to appeal. Biden said his administration would fight the ruling.
