Title
Declaring Philadelphia's commitment to protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive healthcare through the establishment of a Reproductive Rights Taskforce in the wake of increasingly severe attacks on the fundamental right to bodily autonomy.
Body
WHEREAS, Access to a safe and affordable abortion is a human right, and in a time of unprecedented attacks against those who seek and provide reproductive healthcare, the City of Philadelphia must continue to take comprehensive action to protect and expand access to needed care; and
WHEREAS, Extreme anti-abortion activists are seeking to ban medication abortions, filing an unprecedented lawsuit to revoke the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) decades-old determination that taking Mifepristone and Misoprostol is a safe and effective protocol to end pregnancy; and
WHEREAS, It is estimated that in 2020, medication abortions involving Mifepristone and Misoprostol accounted for over half of?all abortions in the United States, and experts say the pills are as safe as the over-the-counter painkiller ibuprofen; and
WHEREAS, Medication abortions are generally less expensive than procedures, and provide a lifeline for those who cannot easily travel to abortion clinics; and
WHEREAS, In April 2023, a radically conservative judge in Texas, for the first time in U.S. history, revoked the FDA's approval of medication abortions; and
WHEREAS, While the Supreme Court later preserved access to the drug while the lawsuit winds through the courts, at least two Supreme Court justices stated they would revoke access to the drug, and the case will likely reach the deeply conservative court for a final adjudication; and
WHEREAS, A ruling against the FDA approval of Mifepristone would force millions of Americans to use a less effective and more painful medical abortion protocol or to flock to already near-capacity abortion clinics, sometimes hundreds of miles away; and
WHEREAS, The unprecedented attack on the n...
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