In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the ban on abortion, a prominent reproductive-rights activist is using the abortion pill Mifepristone.
Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch physician who founded Women on Waves and several other reproductive rights organizations, has spent the last twenty years helping women in abortion-restrictive countries access medical abortion through the use of boats, robots, and drones.
In an interview with Insider this week, Gomperts said that she was betting that the future of reproductive justice could be found in a 50-milligram dose of the contraceptive pill.
One of the drugs under the umbrella of the "abortion pill" stops pregnant women from getting pregnant. The medicine can be used to induce an abortion up to nine weeks.
Mifepristone is used as an abortion pill. Aid Access gives access to abortion via mail in the US and around the world. Gomperts is looking to use the pill's other health benefits in order to provide people who can become pregnant with a possible fail safe.
She said that it has great health benefits for women. It works against the disease. It works great against myoma. The morning after pill is an effective contraceptive pill that doesn't have the side effects of hormonal contraceptives.
Gomperts is eager to start a study of her own, since studies around the world are looking at how mifepristone can be used to combat cancer, addiction, depression, and several other ailments.
She wants to have 50 grams of the contraceptive on pharmacy shelves within a decade.
She hoped that it would change women's lives.
If the FDA-approved contraceptive is used as a weekly contraceptive, people who can become pregnant could have easy access to the medication, but also use it as an abortion inducer.
When people are pregnant the laws are addressed. There's no criminalization if you make sure that people have these medicines in their home.
If access to contraception continues to be a protected federal right in the US, the solution will work. The landmark case that protected access to contraception was reexamined by the Supreme Court.
The threat of more restrictions isn't stopping Gomperts from moving forward.
She told Insider that it is important to look for what is possible.
The ethical approval of the Ministry of Health of Moldova to run a study was given by Gomperts' organization, Women on Web.
She hopes to apply for the pill's registration as a contraceptive with the FDA and the European Medicines Agency after the group raises enough money to implement the trial.
The study needs to raise another half a million dollars before they can start. The group needs 2.2 million euros to conduct the trial.
"So that it becomes widely available for women to use for all its indications, we decided this is a medicine that needs to be freed from the restrictions that have been put on it."
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