Demonstrators gather to defend abortion rights outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., April 15, 2023.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty’s paintings
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the abortion pill mifepristone to stay widely available because the dispute continues in a lower court.
The decision of the supreme court was taken in response to an urgent request made by Ministry of Justice block lower court rulings that may severely limit access to the drug even in some states where abortion stays legal.
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The case will now be heard by the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court scheduled hearings for Wednesday, May 17 at 1:00 p.m. CT.
Mifepristone has been a flashpoint within the legal battle over abortion since last summer the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark 1973 decision that guaranteed abortion nationwide as a constitutional right.
Mifepristone, used together with one other drug called misoprostol, is probably the most common method of abortion in america, accounting for about half of all abortions.
President Joe Biden said the court decision gives women access to mifepristone, and the FDA has approved termination of early pregnancies. Biden said his administration will fight to guard access to mifepristone in an ongoing legal battle within the fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“I’m still standing [the Food and Drug Administration’s] evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and my administration will proceed to defend the FDA’s independent, expert authority to review, approve, and regulate a wide selection of prescribed drugs,” the president said.
Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said the Supreme Court decision relieves the reproductive health care provider.
But McGill Johnson warned that access to mifepristone stays in danger because the legal battle continues within the appeals court.
“While the approval of mifepristone stays intact and stays available on the market for now, patients and healthcare professionals mustn’t be on the mercy of the court system,” McGill Johnson said. “Drug abortion stays at great risk – as is abortion and access to other sexual and reproductive health care.”
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, each conservatives, opposed the court’s majority decision to grant an urgent request from the Department of Justice and Danco Laboratories, distributor of the branded version of Mifeprex.
The Department of Justice and Danco, of their urgent motions, told the Supreme Court that the restrictions imposed by the lower courts would effectively remove mifepristone from the marketplace for months because the FDA adjusted the drug’s labeling to comply with the orders. They argued that this could prevent women from accessing the FDA-approved drug, which is a protected alternative to surgical abortion.
Alito rejected this argument in his objection. The judge said the FDA could simply use its enforcement leeway in the course of the litigation and permit Danco to proceed distributing the mifepristone.
Majority court decision to maintain establishment means mifepristone stays available by post and ladies can get prescribed drugs without having to go to a health care provider in person.
Nevertheless, within the dozen or so states which have successfully banned abortion prior to now 12 months, the drug will remain largely unavailable. Other states even have restrictions which might be much stricter than FDA regulations.
The national legal battle over mifepristone began with a lawsuit filed by a coalition of anti-abortion doctors, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. These doctors sought to force the FDA to completely withdraw the drug from the US.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled in favor of anti-abortion doctors and issued a general order that may have halted the sale of mifepristone nationwide.
A couple of days later, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked part of Kacsmaryk’s injunction and allowed Mifeprex to remain available on the market. But appeals court judges placed restrictions on the drugs that may severely restrict access.
The appeals court blocked delivery of the drug by mail, imposed doctor visits as a condition for receiving the drug, and reduced the time women took the pill until seven weeks pregnant.
The appeals court judges also suspended the approval of a generic version of mifepristone in 2019. The company that sells the generic version, GenBioPro, told the high court that the majority of the country’s supply of the drug would “disappear overnight” if the appeals court ruling went into effect.
GenBioPro said it supplies two-thirds of the mifepristone utilized in abortions within the US