Press Releases
04/21/2023
Attorney General Tong Statement on Supreme Court Stay Preserving Access to Medication Abortion Nationwide
(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong issued the following statement after the U.S Supreme Court further stayed a Texas judge’s medication abortion decision that would suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s long-standing approval of mifepristone. The Texas judge’s order is now on hold until the federal Fifth Circuit hears and resolves the FDA’s appeal and the Supreme Court resolves any certiorari petition.“Today’s stay preserves access to safe, legal medication abortion. We’re done with radical, misogynist politicians who want to micromanage our lives and bodily autonomy. I’m going to fight like hell at every single step of this case, alongside women, patients, and doctors everywhere who refuse to live in Gilead,” said Attorney General Tong.
Attorney General Tong fought for this stay, and also filed Connecticut’s own case in Washington state with attorneys general from 16 other states and the District of Columbia to proactively protect our rights here in Connecticut.
On Friday, April 7, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a decision suspending the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) long-standing approval of mifepristone. The FDA first approved mifepristone in 2000, and since then 5.6 million people in the U.S. have used it safely for medication abortion and miscarriage care. At the same time, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington issued a decision in a separate case brought by the attorneys general of 17 states and the District of Columbia—including Connecticut. That decision bars the FDA from reducing access to medication abortion in the plaintiff states.
Medication abortion is safe, legal, and accessible in Connecticut. Attorney General Tong issued a formal opinion on April 14 ensuring there would be no ambiguity as to patients’ rights to access abortion, providers’ ability to prescribe mifepristone, and the state’s ability to cover mifepristone under its Medicaid program.
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Media Contact:
Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov
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