(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont and Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz are applauding today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, in which the justices unanimously reversed a lower court ruling and thus maintained the ability of Americans to access the widely used abortion medication mifepristone.
Governor Lamont and a coalition of 22 other governors known as the Reproductive Freedom Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief with the court in this case, arguing that if the court allowed the lower court ruling to stand, it could undermine governors’ abilities to provide adequate healthcare services and would have far-reaching implications beyond reproductive healthcare.
“I applaud the Supreme Court today for recognizing that the attempts to ban mifepristone – a medication that has been proven safe and has been widely used for several decades – was nothing more than a politically motivated attempt to restrict the ability of Americans to make their own family planning decisions,” Governor Lamont said. “This case was never about safety, it was about controlling peoples’ medical decisions and their ability to decide when they should start a family. But we must recognize that this will not be the last attempt by politicians to interfere in reproductive healthcare. As long as I am in office, I will use every tool in my power to fight for the ability of patients and their doctors to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions.”
“Today the people of Connecticut can breathe a sigh of relief that the Supreme Court has unanimously decided to preserve access to mifepristone, a medication that been safely used by more than five million patients over the last 20 years,” Lt. Governor Bysiewicz said. “In our state, nearly two thirds of the abortions performed in 2021 were medication abortions using mifepristone. And, beyond its use in medical abortions, it has been found to be effective and safe in managing a miscarriage, which if left untreated can cause severe infection, infertility, or even death. Removing access to the medication or reinstating outdated and medically unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone would have been a devastating blow to accessing safe abortions and miscarriage management – especially for those in our most vulnerable populations – our communities of color, indigenous communities, and rural areas. While today’s decision is good news, we must remain vigilant as the Supreme Court has left the door open for other plaintiffs, who may allege harm, to bring similar actions. Further, the Supreme Court, federal courts, and state legislatures across the country continue to take actions to severely restrict women’s access to reproductive healthcare. In the face of these dangerous and all-out attacks on the right to access essential healthcare, Governor Lamont and I remain committed to protecting our patients and providers.”