Thread by @NARAL

🧵 Yesterday #SCOTUS sided with Trump to reinstate the requirement that people have to receive medication abortion in person. It’s the first abortion case with Amy Coney Barrett on the bench—and it’s bad news for reproductive freedom. But what does it all mean? We'll explain.

During the pandemic, a federal judge blocked the requirement that people get one of the pills for medication abortion, mifepristone, in person. Medication abortion is incredibly safe and effective, so the in person requirement is completely medically unnecessary.

And during a pandemic, it’s actually harmful to make people travel to a doctor, clinic, or hospital to get medication abortion. It exposes them to unnecessary #COVID19 risk at a time when healthcare should be more accessible, not less.

But rather than follow the logic and the science on this one, #SCOTUS sided with Trump to promote an ideological agenda based in disinformation over the needs of actual patients. That’s right, they’re *actually* taking away healthcare during a pandemic.

Unfortunately, the people who are going to be most adversely affected by this decision are the people already bearing the brunt of this pandemic—women, people of color, and folks with low incomes. To further deprive them of essential healthcare in a time of need is beyond cruel.

So while this decision is awful—there's hope things will get better. @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris can fix this by not enforcing the in-person requirement during COVID and having the FDA review the restrictions on medication abortion to ensure they reflect science, not politics.

We’ve got a long road ahead, and with Amy Coney Barrett on the bench, our rights will always be at risk. But with an administration committed to protecting our fundamental freedoms, we might actually be able to make abortion care affordable and accessible for all.