Sen. Kaine: SCOTUS ruling against mifepristone access would cause a political "earthquake"
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine anticipates that a potential political “earthquake” could shake the country, should the U.S. Supreme Court reimpose restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone.
The high court is scheduled to hear arguments in two cases on Tuesday regarding access to mifepristone, Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and Danco Laboratories v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. Though, a decision could be months away.
“It would be an earthquake, in some ways even a bigger earthquake than the Dobbs decision, if they were to strike down access to the most convenient and accessible form of medicine for folks who want to terminate pregnancies,” Kaine, who is up for re-election this year, said. “Right now, it’s lawful in every zip code.”
“It would just affect massive numbers of people,” he said.
A chance for bipartisan legislation?
The cases revolve around three questions: If the Food and Drug Administration correctly allowed mifepristone to be dispensed through the mail; if nurse practitioners and physician assistants can prescribe the drug in addition to doctors; and if pregnant patients can take the drug up to ten weeks into a pregnancy instead of seven.
“We have legislation already filed,” he said. “If there were to be a negative decision in the mifepristone case, I think there’s a good chance we would get that out for a floor vote.”
Kaine also said there was a good chance Senate Democrats could pick up some Republican votes and potentially achieve the 60-vote threshold necessary to avoid filibuster and pass the legislation, which could codify access abortion and contraception.
“There’s just a steady drumbeat of one atrocious example after the next,” Kaine said, referring to stories he has heard from constituents who have gone through reproductive health crises since the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision effectively overturned Roe v. Wade. Nearly two dozen states have banned or severely restricted access to abortion health care since that decision.
Though hesitant to predict the outcome of the cases, Kaine said he is hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court will rule to maintain access to mifepristone. The court is expected to rule on the cases by June.
Abortion access critical in Virginia elections
The Senator from Virginia made his remarks in an interview following a panel discussion that he moderated at the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia in Richmond on Sunday. The event served as an acknowledgement that access to reproductive health care will be a cornerstone of Kaine’s re-election campaign.
“We’ve already seen the devastating impact that the Dobbs decision has had,” Rep. Jennifer McClellan, who attended the event as a co-host and panelist, said in an interview following the discussion. McClellan, a first term U.S. Representative, announced she will run for re-election to represent Virginia’s 4th Congressional District on Tuesday.
Following the panel discussion on Sunday, she noted that any Supreme Court ruling that would restrict access to mifepristone would worsen the current reproductive health care crisis. That crisis includes an increase in maternal deaths, and a lack of health care providers in certain states.
She noted that once abortion bans went into effect, Virginia health care providers began to see patients who traveled across states to get access to reproductive health care. That increased volume of patients has made it more difficult for Virginians to access health care as well, she said. Currently, abortion is legal in Virginia until 27 weeks.
“We need to make sure at the federal level we’re codifying the right to abortion, and being as comprehensive as possible, if necessary, start the Constitutional amendment process,” McClellan said. “Health care decisions should be made between patients and providers and the majority of politicians who are trying to insert their views and opinions into the equation are putting women’s lives in danger.”
The panelists included U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D – Virginia; Virginia State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi; Kenda Sutton-El, founding executive director of Birth in Color; Dr. Melody Matthews; and Deirdre Turner. They fielded questions for nearly two hours from Kaine and the audience that focused on access to reproductive health care services, post-Dobbs.