SMITH, WARREN, CROCKETT, AND ADVOCATES SPEAK OUT FOR ABORTION RIGHTS AND COURT EXPANSION AHEAD OF MIFEPRISTONE CASE ARGUMENTS

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (March 25, 2024) – Ahead of tomorrow’s oral arguments in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, Take Back the Court Action Fund and Reproductive Equity Now held a press conference with Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), and Abortion Access Missouri to discuss the threat the case poses to abortion access in blue states; the potential consequences for people seeking care in red and purple states; and why court expansion is essential to the fight to protect our reproductive rights.

Here’s what this panel of congressional champions and advocates had to say:

“Because President Trump and Senate Republicans stole two Supreme Court seats, this court is beholden to extreme right wing special interests — and that puts the fate of abortion access in this nation genuinely at risk. So there are reasons that the Republicans are pursuing this anti-abortion agenda through the court system and not in the halls of Congress, and that’s quite clear: because they know that they are wildly out of step with the American people,” said Senator Tina Smith. “This stolen court cannot be trusted to protect our fundamental rights and to deliver equal justice under the law. So when you know that something is broken in our democracy, you can’t just turn away — you need to commit to fixing it. And that is why the work we are engaged in to expand the court is so important. The Constitution gives Congress the power to fix the court, and we should use that power.”

“It’s clear that public opinion is not on the side of the extremists trying to strip away abortion rights; it is on the side of the people who believe access should be there for everyone. And that’s why the Republicans are changing their playbook: They can’t pass more abortion laws without being at the state level, so they have gone to their friends in the courts,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren. “Donald Trump’s right-wing judges have gone too far. And just as we did when Roe was overturned and on every ballot measure since then, we must fight back.”

“For many victims of sexual assault, abortion care is lifesaving care. And for the millions of American women left without access to safe, legal abortion after extremists on the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, access to mifepristone is more critical than ever. Mifepristone is a safe and effective medication that has been used more than 5 million times since it was approved over two decades ago. It’s a lifeline for rural women, women in healthcare deserts, and particularly women of color facing healthcare inequities,” said Representative Jasmine Crockett. “The attacks on mifepristone are politically motivated, baseless, and dangerous — and American women are calling on us to fight for them in the halls of Congress and in the halls of the Courts.

“Last month, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children — throwing countless families’ futures into chaos as clinics announced they would halt IVF treatments. We’ve seen women prosecuted for having a miscarriage. In Texas, we’ve seen access to birth control curtailed. In Missouri, pregnant women can’t finalize a divorce, even from an abusive spouse. And all of this flows from what the Supreme Court has done and will continue to do unless and until we reform and rebalance it,” said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of Take Back the Court Action Fund. “This case isn’t a fluke. It’s part of the dehumanizing, absurdist legal landscape that the Supreme Court has invited: Fake plaintiffs, fake evidence, real consequences.”

“We always knew that Dobbs was never the end game for the anti-abortion movement, and we could not become complacent. Anti-abortion extremists do not just want to ban abortion in the 21 states where they control the state legislatures — they want to ban abortion nationwide,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now. “Let me be clear: This case is a politically-motivated, scientifically-baseless attack on abortion access. It ignores established law and science. It is not only an attempt to ban access to medication abortion using the mail in red states, it is an effort to ban a method of abortion care in blue states—the same states that have repeatedly vindicated the right to access abortion.”

“The highest court in the land has been corrupted. It, too, is dominated by a majority only concerned about exerting power and control. They flagrantly promote a partisan political stance, ignoring science, and undermining our democracy. Their actions violate the promise of justice for all and perpetuate direct harm against our communities, our families. It is not on the side of Missourians, nor any across red, purple, or blue states; it is not on the side of Americans,” said Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri. “We must fight these attacks, we must expand the court. We are the people — it is time they listened to our will.”

Watch a recording of the full event here.

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