Ohio abortion rights advocates: Situation even more unpredictable after court rulings
This story has been updated after a federal appeals court late Wednesday paused part of a lower court's ruling that suspended approval of mifepristone but upheld parts that knocked down expanded access to the abortion pill.
Due to rapid and often contradicting changes in abortion policy at both the state and federal levels, abortion rights advocates are unsure precisely how recent federal rulings about medication abortions will affect central Ohio.
On Friday, a federal judge in Texas halted the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone, the first in a two-drug regimen for medication abortions performed early in pregnancies. The U.S. Department of Justice asked an appeals court to hold off on implementing the ruling, which was set to go into effect Saturday.
"The judge did the right thing there," Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said. "It could be banned nationwide come this Saturday."
Meanwhile, Danielle Firsich, public policy director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio called the ruling dangerous, saying it sets a precedent for federal judges who have little to no medical training to ban the use of any FDA-approved medication, such as a vaccine or even insulin, for religious or political reasons.
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Mere hours later, another federal judge in Washington state ordered the FDA not to make any changes that would restrict access to the drug in 17 states and D.C. that sued to expand access to mifepristone. Ohio is not one of the states involved in the lawsuit.
On Wednesday, a divided federal appeals court in Louisiana paused a critical part of the Texas ruling, allowing the FDA's 23-year-old approval of mifepristone to remain in effect, but also upheld parts of the lower court's ruling that knocked down expanded access to the drug. For instance, in 2016 the FDA allowed non-doctors to prescribe the drug. In 2021, the agency permitted the drug to be dispensed through the mail.
It remained unclear Thursday morning whether the Biden administration would appeal those portions of the ruling dealing with the restrictions to the Supreme Court.
Friday's ruling in Texas leaves only the second drug, misoprostol. While it's still just as safe and nearly as effective as the two-drug regimen, it causes more side effects and makes the recovery process more unpredictable, experts say.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court's June reversal of its once-landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion in the United States — and Ohio lawmakers quickly implemented a law Gov. Mike DeWine signed in 2019 that banned most abortions in the state — the abortion landscape has become extremely unpredictable, said Dr. Adarsh Krishen, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio.
"We know patients are going to go where they're going to get safe, legal abortions," Krishen said Tuesday during a virtual news conference with Ohio news outlets, including The Dispatch and USA TODAY Network Ohio. "It hasn't slowed patients down from getting abortions."
He doesn't know whether that will lead to an increase of patients traveling to Ohio for abortions or whether an increased number of people seeking abortions in Ohio will opt for surgical abortions now that only misoprostol is allowed under Friday's federal ruling.
That said, a misoprostol-only abortion likely will result in more pain and nausea, Krishen said.
"If you're a person who needs to work or do other things in your life, it will make this that much more difficult for you," he said.
While Planned Parenthood is seeking legal guidance about what the pair of rulings mean, it's prepared to switch to using only misoprostol for medication abortions and remains confident there will be enough, Krishen said.
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The reason anti-abortion advocates aren't targeting misoprostol is because it also can be used for many other medical purposes, including treating stomach ulcers, inducing labor and treating miscarriages, Firsich said.
"This is a very direct and targeted attack on a specific drug, for a very specific reason," she said. "The main characters in this case frankly have no business bringing a case like this."
When contacted by a reporter Tuesday, a person who answered the phone at Your Choice Healthcare, a medication-only clinic in Columbus, told The Dispatch that the facility was not allowed to comment.
USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau reporter Jessie Balmert and USA TODAY reporters John Fritze and Christine Fernando contributed to this report.
nshuda@dispatch.com
@NathanielShuda
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio medication abortions: Court rulings make situation unpredictable
