Supreme Court temporarily pauses limitations on abortion pill mifepristone

First modification: 04/14/2023 – 20:58Last modification: 04/14/2023 – 20:57

US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday temporarily halted lower court rulings limiting access to the abortion pill mifepristone, giving the court time to consider a request by President Joe Biden’s administration.

Thus, the conservative judge, who deals with urgent matters raised by a group of states including Texas, freezes the litigation and maintains the current availability of mifepristone on the market, pending a new order from him or of the entire Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority.

Earlier, the Administration of Democrat Joe Biden had sent an appeal to the Supreme Court urging it to freeze recent rulings that would ban or impose limits on the use of the drug mifepristone, which was scheduled to take effect on Saturday.

“Lower court orders will change the status quo and disrupt the complex regulatory regime governing mifepristone,” Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar said in a 47-page document.

“Such a disruptive outcome would profoundly harm women, the nation’s health care system, the FDA (the US drug regulatory agency) and the public interest,” he added.

In combination with another drug, mifepristone is used for more than half of abortions in the United Statesand more than five million American women have taken it since its FDA approval more than two decades ago.

The judicial fight

The judicial saga began last week. A federal judge in Texas, Matthew Kacsmaryk, ordered a nationwide ban on mifepristone on April 7 in response to a lawsuit by a coalition of anti-abortion groups that challenged the drug’s FDA approval in 2000.

On April 12, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit partially reversed Kacsmaryk’s decision, ruling that mifepristone, also known as RU 486, should remain temporarily available pending a final decision. But it limited access to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, instead of 10, and blocked distribution by mail.

Now, the Justice Department said the initial ruling by Kacsmaryk, a judge appointed by former Republican President Donald Trump, was based on a “deeply flawed assessment of the safety of mifepristone” and also disagreed with the Fifth Circuit’s decision.

In its request, the Government asked the Supreme Court for a “stay” of the Fifth Circuit ruling “to preserve the status quo”, pending an examination of the merits of the case.

“Untenable Limbo”

One of the two companies that market mifepristone in the United States, the Danco laboratory, also asked for the intervention of the Supreme Court, warning that there is a risk of creating “regulatory chaos throughout the country.”

The company noted that also on April 7, another federal court, located in Washington state, ruled that access to mifepristone must be maintained, in response to a lawsuit by 17 Democratic-ruled US states.

“The result is an unsustainable limbo for Danco, for providers, for women and for health care systems,” Danco said.

“Given this uncertainty, Danco may be forced to halt operations,” even the New York-based company said.

More than a dozen US states have passed laws banning or severely restricting abortion since the Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade who had enshrined the constitutional right to abortion for nearly half a century.

Since the repeal, states have been free to legislate on the issue.

The most recent case was Florida, one of the most populous states in the United States, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Thursday banning most abortions after six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant.

Currently, abortion is now prohibited in 15 states of the country. However, there are options for women: organizations mobilize to supply abortion pills from abroad or from other states, and they are also sold online.

For states where abortion remains legal, if access to the abortion pill is restricted, women would still have the alternative of aspiration abortion, a more cumbersome procedure that requires a visit to a clinic.

Some doctors are considering continuing to offer abortions using only the second tablet, misoprostol. But this method has a slightly lower effectiveness rate and more side effects (severe cramps, for example) than the combination of misoprostol and mifepristone.

A clear majority of Americans support maintaining access to safe abortions, public opinion polls show time and time again.

With AFP and Reuters