ST. LOUIS – On Thursday, local advocates on both sides of the abortion issue were speaking out after the United States Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone. While abortions are still illegal in Missouri, the local Planned Parenthood office said the ruling is a win.
Local physicians answered questions about how the national ruling will impact women right here in Missouri.
“Although the decision is a win overall, it doesn’t change any state-specific state regulations, and it doesn’t make any form of abortion legal now in Missouri,” Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for the Planned Parenthood of St. Louis region, said.
McNicholas said since Missouri’s decision in 2022 made abortions illegal, they’ve noticed women are still able to find different avenues for abortions.
“We know from recent data despite the fact that providers such as ourselves are not providing direct abortion services that Missourians are actually getting access to medication abortion through a variety of ways that are operating outside of the medical system,” she said.
On the other side of the issue, pro-life groups are worried about the Supreme Court’s ruling against the physicians who were hoping to take mifepristone off the shelves.
“They didn’t perform abortions themselves, but they’ve treated patients who have had abortions and have been injured, have encountered them in emergency rooms, and they believe that the FDA’s ruling from a few years ago, which liberalized the use of abortion pills, was a bad decision,” Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri, said.
Lee said allowing the abortion pill to be easily accessible through telemedicine or online services could be harmful for the women taking them.
“We’re concerned because a lot of people are ordering abortion pills on the internet even from, not just other states, but other countries, and these can be dangerous particularly if they’re taken later in pregnancy,” he said.
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