Community organizers gathered outside of San Jose’s City Hall on Sunday to protest the recent halt in Texas of a drug used for abortion.
On April 7, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk challenged the Food and Drugs Administrations approval of the drug mifepristone, according to a Monday NPR article.
Mifepristone is the first of two oral medications that are used in a medical abortion and was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000, according to a Planned Parenthood article.
Mike Paradela, a community organizer for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, said he’s concerned with the current state of reproductive rights in the country.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization is a group that fights for socialism in America, according to its website frso.org.
“I'm here because even though I can't have a kid or I can't be the one to carry it, that does not mean that people I don't know can or will be affected by this,” Paradela said.
Medical abortions made up 53% of all facility-based abortions in the U.S. in 2020, according to a Feb. 24, 2022 Guttmacher Institute study.
Paradela said he doesn’t want a future where people are forced to have children they may neglect.
“Everyone who can have a kid is affected by this and I’m here because I care about these issues because attacks on one person and one community is just a way to attack another community,” Paradela said.
The drug is still available in Texas as Judge Kasmaryk gave the Food and Drug Administration seven days to appeal, according to a Sunday PBS article.
President Joe Biden appealed Judge Kacsmaryk's decision on the same day in a statement on whitehouse.gov
“If this ruling were to stand, then there will be virtually no prescription, approved by the FDA, that would be safe from these kinds of political, ideological attacks,” Biden said.
He said Judge Kacsmaryk's ruling is unprecedented.
“Vice President Harris and I will continue to lead the fight to protect a woman’s right to an abortion, and to make her own decisions about her own health,” Biden said.
San Jose resident Sondra Bazzoti said the right to abortions is a topic that connects to her.
“I know people that have had abortions when they were really young,” Bazzoti said. “If they weren’t able to get a safe abortion, I know they would have tried to get it on their own illegally.”
She said she thinks Judge Kacsmaryk's decision will lead to more abortion rights revoked.
“I'm very disheartened by the ruling and, it's just, it's scary,” Bazzoti said.
With the appeal from the Department of Justice, the Texas ruling will be heard by the Fifth Circuit of Appeals and may ultimately end up on the desk of the Supreme Court, according to a Monday NPR article.
“I thought having a woman vice president would help, but it’s not helping and I’m still seeing our rights getting stripped away,” Bazzoti said.
Diana Lopez Bartolo, a political science junior at San Jose State who serves as a member of Students for a Democratic Society, said it was important to have her voice heard.
“It's important not just for women, but also for all the people to fight against [Kacsmark’s Ruling] because it’s a violation against women's right,” Lopez Bartolo said.
Lopez Bartolo said since the 2022 Supreme Court’s overturning of “Roe v. Wade” women’s rights have been stripped away.
“I feel that being denied access to this bill in particular, is also going to affect the lives of other young women,” Lopez Bartolo said. “Their lives can be completely changed.”
