Medical abortion at risk; Questions of reproductive rights remain

 After the fall of Roe v. Wade last June, Americans were left unsure of the future protocol of medical abortion, also known as the abortion pill.

      Recently, two contradictory court rulings focusing on the safety of abortion medicines have arisen in the state of Texas.

      The option of abortion pills has been available to women in the United States since 2000, according to Guttmacher Institute.  A Texas District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk has recently begun a case surrounding mifepristone and misoprostol. These are the drugs used to achieve medical abortions. This being said, medical abortions are not as efficient and effective as terminating a pregnancy would be. But still, the option of abortion pills are still important to women, as a survey conducted by the Guttmacher Institute found that “more than half of U.S. abortions are now done with pills rather than surgery.”

      The drugs that perform the procedure are approved by the FDA. Kacsmaryk does not agree that they should have been approved and available to use by women in the first place. The judge is attempting to rule these drugs as unsafe and hazardous to women across the country.

     According to this lawsuit, it is alleged that the option of medical abortions will be illegal for women in only Texas.  However, some citizens outside of Texas have begun to question if their state will also illegalize these drugs since Kacsmaryk would be setting the stage for other state judges to follow–if the official is successful in the ruling.

      Sophomore Bianca Baker shared that she believes that “women’s rights should be protected.” The student explained that “there are many factors that should go into why a person should have an abortion, which is not for the government to decide in any way.”

      She adds that “[The government is] not the one birthing and supporting the baby or experiencing any trauma a woman may have to go through to have the baby.”

      Fellow sophomore Jenna Trzeciak feels that “if people were to be raped or have had something happen to them, then I think they should have access to abortion medicines as well as abortions itself.”

      She then added that she doesn’t “understand why [ Kacsmaryk] is saying that these medicines should have never been approved if it helped people, but I feel like abortions should only be taken away if people are acting irresponsibly.”

      According to CNN, as of April 27, the Supreme Court has “protected access to a widely used abortion drug by freezing lower-court rulings that placed restrictions on its usage as appeals play out.” This ultimately means that these drugs are to “remain in place while [the] appeals play out.”