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Emma Hernandez is defiant even if she fears what may come in the latest stage of the nation’s fight over abortion: a widening prohibition to safe and legal ways to end unwanted pregnancies, including access to abortion pills.
Competing rulings by two federal judges over the availability of the abortion drug mifepristone are sowing alarm and confusion for Hernandez and countless other Americans who insist that availability must be guaranteed. Others celebrated one judge’s ruling that would restrict that access but acknowledge the battle is far from over.
Hernandez’s concerns were heightened Friday when U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee in Amarillo, Texas, overruled decades of scientific approval and put on hold federal approval of mifepristone, one of the most commonly used medications to prevent pregnancies. The judge immediately stayed his ruling for a week so federal authorities could file a challenge.
At about the same time in Spokane, Washington, U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice, an Obama appointee, directed federal officials not to hinder access to the drug in at least 17 states where Democrats sued to keep the drug’s availability intact. The issue will likely be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, which last year repealed Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision that had established a constitutional right to abortions.
“As a person who’s had multiple medication abortions, we know that the medication itself is safe and effective,” said Hernandez, a 30-year-old Texas resident who works for We Testify, an organization that provides an outlet for people to share their stories about abortions.
