Supreme Court prepares to decide on access to abortion pill

The US Supreme Court faces a self-imposed deadline Friday night to decide whether women’s access to a widely used abortion pill will remain unchanged or be restricted while legal challenges to its approval by the United States continue. the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Judges are weighing arguments that allowing the restrictions contained in the lower court rulings to take effect would severely disrupt the availability of the drug, mifepristone, which is used as the most common method of abortion in the United States.

It has repeatedly been found to be safe and effective, and has been used by more than 5 million women in the US since FDA approval in 2000.

The Supreme Court had initially said it would decide on Wednesday whether the restrictions would take effect while the case continues. A one-sentence order signed by Judge Samuel Alito on Wednesday gave the judges two extra days, without explanation.

The judges are scheduled to meet for a private conference on Friday, where they could discuss the matter. The extra time could be part of an effort to draft an order that has broad support among judges. Or one or more judges could be writing a separate opinion and requested a couple of extra days.

The mifepristone challenge, brought by abortion opponents, is the first abortion controversy to reach the nation’s highest court since its conservative majority struck down Roe v. Wade 10 months ago and allowed more than a dozen states to ban abortion entirely.

In his majority opinion, Alito said one of the reasons for overturning Roe was to remove federal courts from the fight against abortion. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the elected representatives of the people,” he wrote.

But even with their victory in court, abortion opponents returned to federal court with a new target: medical abortions, which account for more than half of all abortions in the United States.

Women seeking to terminate their pregnancies in the first 10 weeks without a more invasive surgical abortion can take mifepristone, along with misoprostol. The FDA has eased the terms of use for mifepristone over the years, including allowing it to be mailed in states that allow access.

Opponents of abortion filed a lawsuit in Texas in November, claiming that the original FDA approval of mifepristone 23 years ago and subsequent changes were flawed.

They obtained a ruling on April 7 from US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump, revoking the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. The judge gave the Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the maker of mifepristone, a week to appeal and try to keep his ruling on hold.

In response to a swift appeal, two other Trump appointees on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said the original FDA approval would stand for now. But Justices Andrew Oldham and Kurt Englehardt said the bulk of Kacsmaryk’s ruling could take effect as the case moves through the federal courts.

Their decision would effectively nullify changes made by the FDA starting in 2016, including extending from seven to 10 weeks of pregnancy when mifepristone can be used safely. The court also said the drug cannot be mailed or distributed as a generic and that patients seeking it must make three in-person visits with a doctor. Women may also be required to take a higher dose of the drug than the FDA says is necessary.

[Con información de The Associated Press]

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