The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has overturned Judge Kascmaryk’s biased and unsound decision to suspend mifepristone’s approval while an appeal is heard, but has insisted that harmful, outdated, medically unnecessary requirements be reinstated. The case against mifepristone is groundless, and was fabricated as part of the anti-abortion movement’s efforts to end legal abortion everywhere in this country. Mifepristone is part of a safe and effective regimen for abortion care, and has been safely used by millions since it was approved over 20 years ago. 

Advocates for Youth is appalled by Idaho’s new law, H.B. 242, making it illegal for anyone to help a young person under 18 obtain abortion pills or to “recruit, harbor, or transport” a young person under 18 out of state for abortion care without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Anyone convicted of what Idaho lawmakers are disturbingly calling “abortion trafficking,” faces between two to five years in prison and be required to pay a minimum of $20,000 in statutory damages.

Advocates for Youth is outraged by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s decision to stay the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug Mifepristone. Mifepristone has been available by prescription for 20 years and more than five million people have used it to safely end their pregnancies. 

Advocates for Youth strongly condemns U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor’s decision in Braidwood Management v. Becerra. This decision struck down a provision of the Affordable Care Act that requires insurance companies to cover lifesaving preventative care without a copay,, including HIV testing and prevention, STD screening, cancer screenings, diabetes screenings, and more.

The right to protest is sacred in this country.  It is an important tool for young people seeking to create change in a country where political processes often don’t include them and legislators often don’t heed them. In Nashville this week, students exercised that right, demanding their legislators take action to reduce gun violence in Tennessee. Democrat representatives Justin Jones (the body’s youngest member), Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson joined the protest. Now, these members have been stripped of committee assignments and face expulsion from the legislature - after Republican leadership cleared the protest by force.  

Advocates for Youth welcomes the introduction of the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) in the 118th Congress. WHPA is an important step that would prohibit states from imposing onerous restrictions on abortion, much like the bills we’re seeing passed all across the country that create a patchwork of restricted access in a post-Dobbs era.