Four of the nine justices who heard Tuesday’s much-anticipated Supreme Court oral argument on a challenge to a major abortion drug were women, the highest number ever on the high court in an abortion case. All three lawyers on both sides who argued the case were also women, a relative rarity on the male-dominated Supreme Court bench.
The result was a surprisingly candid, specific and un-euphemistic exchange about women’s health, highlighting the changing gender balance of the High Court.
Justices Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor strongly dissented when the conservative majority overturned it. Roe vs. Wade In June 2022, Barrett had the majority. However, Jackson was not yet in court when the verdict was handed down.
The abortion pill lawsuit, which could restrict access to mifepristone, a drug used in 63% of the more than 1 million abortions performed in the United States each year, is a somewhat technical medical issue. is focused on.
Anti-abortion advocates claim the pill is extremely dangerous, especially if taken without an ultrasound or in-person examination, but this false claim is based largely on research. The pill was later retracted by the magazine that published it. Major medical associations stress that the drug is extremely safe, with an incidence of serious adverse events of less than 0.5 percent of cases.
Ahead of arguments, experts wondered how much the justices, who are legal experts rather than medical experts, would weigh in on the health and safety claims made by both sides in the case. Some expected the justices would not address the merits of the case, only discussing whether the plaintiffs had standing to sue over the pills.
Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis who specializes in abortion, said Tuesday that the justices were “really interested in the nitty gritty.”
“They were trying to take this issue seriously and treat abortion pills as a medical issue in this context,” Ziegler said. “This is the kind of incident that invites it. It’s not a constitutional issue.”
While much of Tuesday’s debate focused on ongoing issues, the justices, especially women, took the opportunity to discuss the medical realities of the pill in their questions, sometimes offering their own commentary. Sometimes it was provided.
In one exchange regarding whether one of the plaintiff’s doctors participated in the lawsuit, Barrett distinguished between dilation and a procedure that removes the uterus, known as curettage (or D&C), if the uterus is present in the uterus. It is done either after a miscarriage or after an abortion.
“The fact that she had a D&C does not necessarily mean that there was a viable embryo or fetus,” said Barrett, an obstetrician and gynecologist who is president of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. I mentioned Christina Francis. and the plaintiff in the lawsuit. “Because you can get a medical checkup even after a miscarriage.”
Shortly after this, Kagan and Jackson also joined in to support Barrett. I echoed her concerns about her position. Sometimes the three women would even finish each other’s questions.
“Can you clarify from a narrow harm of conscience to a broad harm of conscience?” Jackson asked Erin Hawley, a lawyer for the anti-abortion group Defending Freedom, which filed the lawsuit. “Like Judge Barrett, I understand the harm of conscience, but you suggest there is a broader harm.”
Barrett also provided a thorough discussion of whether an ultrasound is required for medical abortion. She also asked Attorney General Elizabeth B. Prelauger, an attorney at the Department of Justice, about ectopic pregnancies (an extremely dangerous condition in which a pregnancy implants outside the uterus), saying, “There is no testing for ectopic pregnancies.” So, I asked him how he was able to discover it. Ultrasound. ”
Prelogar provided a very specific answer that emphasized the attorney’s grasp of the medical facts at issue.
“There is a series of screening questions that are frequently introduced,” she said.
“You can ask things like, ‘Do you have pelvic pain on one side?'” “Did you become pregnant while having an IUD during or after your tubal ligation?” she continued. , explained this issue in detail.
