THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	42
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

Urging the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation to MONITOR The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration and take action to limit the case from further rESTRICTING access to safe abortion options.

WHEREAS, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 142 S.Ct. 2228 (2022), the Supreme Court of the United States overruled nearly fifty years of federal precedent on reproductive rights, including Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), by holding that the United States Constitution does not provide a right to abortion and authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives; and

WHEREAS, the Dobbs decision opened the door for state legislatures to enact a host of restrictions on reproductive health options that were available pursuant to Roe; and

WHEREAS, following the Dobbs decision, various states have taken steps to curtail or ban abortion outright, while the federal government and other states have been taking actions to protect access to abortion care services; and

WHEREAS, at a time when people across the country are struggling to obtain abortion care services, it is critical that access to medication abortion be available so that health care providers have an additional method of providing a safe and effective abortion treatment to their patients; and

WHEREAS, mifepristone is a drug that was first approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 28, 2000, as a safe and effective drug that can be used with the medicine misoprostol for medical termination of pregnancy through seven weeks gestation, which was subsequently extended to ten weeks gestation in 2016; and

WHEREAS, in the United States District Court for The Northern District of Texas, the case of The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine et al. v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, et al., Case No. 2:22-cv-00223-Z (Alliance), involves plaintiffs seeking to overturn the FDA's approval of mifepristone; and

WHEREAS, the ruling in Alliance could effectively ban mifepristone nationwide and bar health care providers from prescribing mifepristone even in states where abortion is legal, which would result in severe consequences on people's ability to access critical abortion and miscarriage health care; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2023, the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation are urged to monitor the Alliance case currently pending before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas and take action to limit the case from further restricting access to safe abortion; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Women's Health Care; Chemical Abortion Drugs; Abortion Pill; Mifepristone; Access; The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine; U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Hawaii's Congressional Delegation