New York City officials are spearheading a coalition of Democratic cities in urging the Supreme Court to safeguard access to abortion medication.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments about access to the abortion pill mifepristone in March, the first case on the topic since the highest court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. New York and five other localities from across the country are asking the Supreme Court to protect the public’s access to mifepristone, one of two pills used as abortion medication. 

San Francisco, Los Angeles County, Cook County in Illinois, King County in Washington, and Santa Clara County in California all signed onto New York City’s 33-page amicus brief, filed Tuesday. 

In announcing the filing, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he’s “proud to lead this coalition in taking action in full support of protecting women’s access to medication abortions.”

“Not only are the courts denying women the right to control their own bodies through this lower court ruling, but they are also endangering our public health care system by forcing it to divert resources to alternate options and procedures — undoubtedly impacting hospitals’ ability to provide care across the board,” Adams added.

The mifepristone pill was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000 and is used in combination with misoprostol in pill-induced abortions. The Supreme Court agreed in December to take on a suit filed in November 2022 in Texas by a conservative group called Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, which alleges the FDA wrongly approved mifepristone and violated federal criminal law when they expanded policies such as allowing abortion medications to be sent through mail.

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Last year, a ruling from a conservative three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in New Orleans agreed that the distribution of mifepristone should be limited but stopped short of pulling the pill off the market. The decision is currently on hold until the outcome of the appeal at the Supreme Court regarding the Texas lawsuit.  

“The Supreme Court took a step in the right direction when it agreed to review the Fifth Circuit’s misguided ruling, which threatens women’s access to reproductive health care and the stability of our public hospital systems,” New York City Corporation Counsel Sylvia Hinds-Radix said. “Now the court must reject plaintiffs’ erroneous arguments and keep these FDA regulations in place so the devastating impacts to communities we have detailed in our brief can be avoided.”