There is a stench of Christian privilege at the U.S. Supreme Court. Today, the Court said "no" to women who want to obtain mifepristone, also known as RU-486, via the mail during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mifepristone, when combined with another drug, can induce the equivalent of an early miscarriage.
But there is a catch. The FDA requires mifepristone to be picked up in person by the patient at a hospital, clinic or medical office.
According to Justice Sotomayor: "Of the over 20,000 FDA-approved drugs, mifepristone is the only one that the FDA requires to be picked up in person for patients to take at home." Food & Drug Administration v. American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, (US Sup. Ct., Jan 12, 2021, Sotomayor, dissenting).
The Court's decision, tho unsigned, was by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh Gorsuch and Barrett. The Chief Justice filed a short concurrence writing in part: "courts owe significant deference to the politically accountable entities
with the 'background, competence, and expertise to assess public
health.'” Translate: The Court's Christian supremacists use "deference" as a tool to subjugate women to their fundamentalist Christian morals.
Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Kagan, filed a dissenting opinion, saying in part:
Due
to particularly severe health risks, vastly limited clinic options, and
the 10-week window for obtaining a medication abortion, the FDA’s
requirement that women obtain mifepristone in person during the COVID–19
pandemic places an unnecessary and undue burden on their right to
abortion. ...
What rejoinder does the
Government have to the possibility that refusing to suspend the FDA’s
in-person requirements for mifepristone during the COVID–19 pandemic
will cause some women to miss the 10-week window altogether? No cause
for concern, the Government assures this Court, because even if the
FDA’s in-person requirements cause women to lose the opportunity for a
medication abortion, they can still seek out a surgical abortion. What a
callous response.
Justice Breyer, dissented, without joining or filing an opinion.
Bottom line: religion (i.e., fundamentalist Christianity), not justice, controlled the outcome of this case.
I've been to
the Supreme Court many times, including filing petitions for
certiorari and friend of the court briefs. I am heart broken by a
number of Court's recent decisions, including this case. The pillars
holding up Equal Justice Under Law on the Court's West Pediment are crumbling.
