Editor's note: Roxanne Jones, founding editor of ESPN The Magazine and former vice president of ESPN, was a producer, reporter and editor for the New York Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Jones is co-author of the bookSay It Loud: The Illustrated History of a Black Athlete” She covers politics, sports and culture weekly on WURD in Philadelphia at 9:00 am. The opinions expressed here are hers alone. Read more opinions on CNN.
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A Texas federal judge's decision earlier this month to suspend the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of a drug often used for medical abortion is very personal to me.
This is because I took mifepristone many years ago during a miscarriage and it saved my life.
When I was prescribed mifepristone, it had not yet taken center stage in America's abortion wars. I did not have to make a hasty trip across state lines to get the medication, unlike many women who need the medication but live in one of the many states that have limited access to medication abortion or have enacted near-total bans on abortion.
I was not forced to arrange a secret meeting with a stranger to buy medicine on the black market, as several women I spoke with recently said they planned to do. And I didn't have to order mifepristone online and find myself navigating a lot of scammers taking advantage of the current patchy state abortion laws in the US.
Mifepristone is one of two drugs used in medical abortion, and the other, misoprostol, was not covered by the Texas judge's ruling. These two drugs can be given to a person who has had a miscarriage, allowing the pregnancy to be terminated when the fetus is not viable.
This happened several years ago: After I continued to bleed for over 24 hours during my first trimester of pregnancy, I visited my OB/GYN who, after examining me, explained to me that my blood pressure was dropping rapidly and the heavy bleeding I was experiencing was a sure sign of a miscarriage.
For many women, mifepristone is prescribed as part of routine medical care. In my case, this was not the case: as my doctor explained, I had a serious medical emergency. I was grateful for the medicine that saved my life.
My miscarriage took me by surprise. I loved being pregnant for the first time, about ten years ago. And as a healthy woman, I had no reason to fear when I became pregnant again. By the time I was given mifepristone, I was losing the life I had already begun to love. And like many other women, despite my level of education or economic status, I could not get ahead of the statistics that put Black women at higher risk.
Up to one in four known pregnancies will end in miscarriage. And among black women, the numbers are alarmingly higher. According to an analysis of 4.6 million pregnancies in seven countries, the risk of miscarriage for black women is 43% higher than white women.
In the black community, women have traditionally been taught to bear their burdens silently—to keep their affairs to themselves—even after devastating consequences such as pregnancy loss. We are forced to do as I did then and continue to move forward, trying to work around the long list of statistics that tell us that our lives are in danger from all sides, be it health risks, social injustice or other stressors.
At the time of my miscarriage, I was a woman who was afraid, bleeding and in excruciating pain, desperate for safe and immediate medical care. Taking mifepristone helped me maintain my dignity during my miscarriage. This is what every woman deserves, whether she is experiencing a potentially life-threatening miscarriage or seeking an abortion.
Through my experience, I have learned that every miscarriage matters. Women should have access to all the medications and advice we need to help us get better, including mifepristone. What we don't need is politicians criminalizing us and punitive reproductive laws that have long gone against public opinion. Despite ongoing political attacks on women's reproductive rights, more than 61% of U.S. adults believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to the study. Pew Research Center.
After the US Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to intervene, Justice Samuel Alito issued temporary order maintain the status quo by ensuring access to the drug and giving judges more time to study the issue.
I hope the judges can put politics aside and focus on the scientific research surrounding the safety of mifepristone, a drug that I was fortunate to have access to when my life was in danger. Mifepristone, a synthetic steroid, even safer than common prescription drugs including penicillin and Viagra.
Following the scientific imperative, regardless of your position on the issue of abortion, it is necessary to take into account cases like mine and the millions of other women who have suffered from abortion over the years. used this medicine safely for complications associated with miscarriages.
We don't know how the legal fight over medication abortion will evolve. But women across the country—in both blue and red states—are watching. Punitive laws like this signed last week Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is seeking to criminalize reproductive care providers. And what's worse, they take away the rights that men take for granted – it's unlikely that the law will prevent them from making decisions about the health of their own bodies.
This must end. And I'm willing to bet that women will have the final say, whether it's our voice or our voices.
