The recent ruling made by a Texas federal judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk,  banning the abortion pill mifepristone has brought the second biggest dispute involving abortion to the Supreme Court since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. This dispute involving the ban on the abortion drug will not only cause uproar within the medical community but will also significantly affect women’s rights. 

As of Friday, April 21, the Supreme Court decided that access to the drug mifepristone will still be available in states where abortion is legal such as Oregon, Washington, California, and Wyoming. While this ruling protects some in certain areas, many women are left choiceless. Along with the ban on abortion, the ruling may cause other major issues. 

The ruling in Texas has already caused a large uproar within the medical community. The ruling not only banned access to mifepristone, but also questioned the FDA’s authority. People are now on edge and don’t know whether or not to trust the FDA even though they have tested these drugs safely and legitimately. 

Even though the Supreme Court has decided to continue to allow access to mifepristone, it has given people a larger platform to speak out on their concerns and beliefs about other drugs. People are beginning to question if the FDA’s authority is legitimate now that multiple rulings have been made against FDA’s authority. If the FDA is no longer trusted, how will we know which drugs are safe and who to trust when it comes to medications? There is a very large chance that women will be targeted yet again when it comes to these specific rulings. Medications like birth control, vaccines, and contraceptives are now at higher risk of being banned.

The main reason this argument has been brought up revolves around the concern about the safety of mifepristone. Mifepristone is one of two drugs used together to terminate a pregnancy and was first approved in the United States in 2000 by the FDA. Being concerned about the safety of the mifepristone isn’t very logical. Thousands of women have taken mifepristone to terminate a pregnancy and there have only been 28 reported deaths, all of which weren’t related to the fact that they had taken the pill. Mifepristone has been FDA-approved under several safety measures, a very thorough and rigorous process, to assure that the drugs they test are safe. 

The fact that another abortion-related dispute has been brought to the Supreme Court is very concerning. What a woman wants to do with her body should be her choice. If a woman wants to terminate her pregnancy, she should be able to choose whether or not she wants to and have access to the resources to do so. Now that more arguments have been brought up regarding abortion, women are at risk of having yet another thing that violates the choice and rights to their bodies. Also, the fact that this argument is being brought up by men who will never have to experience making this decision doesn’t seem fair. The future of women’s rights for most women in the United States should be decided by women. 

Although the Supreme Court has decided to block the restrictions on mifepristone, we have to make sure this won’t happen again. Basic women’s rights should allow them to have rights to their bodies and therefore access to safe abortion options. In order to ensure women’s rights we need to continue to make decisions that protect the generations of women now and in the future.