The justices granted emergency requests from the Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, which makes mifepristone. They are appealing a lower court ruling that would have revoked the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.
The drug has been approved for use in the United States since 2000 and has been used by more than 5 million people. Mifepristone is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol, in more than half of all abortions in the United States.
Friday’s court action will almost certainly leave access to mifepristone unchanged for at least the next year, with appeals still pending, including a possible appeal to the Supreme Court.
Justices Samuel Alito, the author of last year’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and Clarence Thomas voted to allow restrictions take effect. No other judges have commented.
President Joe Biden has praised the Supreme Court for keeping mifepristone available while the court battle continues.
“The stakes could not be higher for women across America. I will continue to fight politically motivated attacks on women’s health. But let’s be clear — the American people must continue to use their votes as their own, and elect a Congress that will pass legally restores Roe v. Wade protection.”
The justices weighed arguments that allowing the restrictions in lower court rulings to become effective would severely disrupt the availability of mifepristone.
The Supreme Court initially said it would decide by Wednesday whether the restrictions would go into effect while the case was ongoing. A one-sentence order Alito signed on Wednesday gave the judges two more days without explanation.
The challenge to mifepristone, which opponents of abortion bring, is the first miscarriage controversy to reach the country’s highest court since its inception The conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade 10 months ago and allowed more than a dozen countries to completely ban abortion.
In the majority opinion last June, Alito said one of the reasons for dropping Roe was to remove federal courts from anti-abortion. “It is time to pay attention to the constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” he wrote.
But even with their victory in court, Abortion opponents He’s back in federal court with a new target: medical abortion, which makes up more than half of all abortions in the United States.
Women seeking to terminate their pregnancy in the first 10 weeks without a further invasive surgical abortion can take mifepristone, along with misoprostol. The Food and Drug Administration has relaxed the conditions for use of mifepristone over the years, including allowing it to be sent through the mail in states that allow access.
Abortion opponents sued in Texas in November, arguing that the FDA’s original approval of mifepristone 23 years ago and subsequent changes were flawed.
They won a ruling on April 7th US District Judge Matthew KacsmarekTrump, appointed by former President Donald Trump, to revoke the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone. The judge gave the Biden administration and Danco Laboratories a week to appeal and seek to keep its ruling pending.
In response to a speedy appeal, two Trump appointees to the Fifth Circuit to the US Court of Appeals said The original FDA approval will remain in effect for the time being. But Justices Andrew Oldham and Kurt Englehart said most of the remaining provisions in Kaksmarek’s ruling could become effective by the time the case is decided in federal courts.
Their ruling would overturn changes made by the FDA from 2016, including extending the gestational age from seven to 10 weeks when mifepristone can be used safely. The court also said that the drug cannot be mailed or dispensed as a generic drug and that patients who seek it need to have three in-person visits with a doctor. Women may also be required to take higher doses of the drug than the FDA says is necessary.
Management and Danco He said that chaos would arise if these restrictions came into force during the course of the case. Adding to the potential confusion, a federal judge in Washington ordered the FDA to maintain access to mifepristone under existing rules in 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia that filed a separate lawsuit.
The Biden administration said the provisions conflicted and created an intolerable situation for the Food and Drug Administration.
New legal wrinkles threaten to add to the complexities. GenBioPro, which makes the generic version of mifepristone, filed a lawsuit Wednesday to prevent the Food and Drug Administration from preemptively removing its drug from the market, in the absence of the Supreme Court’s intervention.
The Supreme Court was only required to block lower court decisions until the end of the legal case.
The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit has already ordered an accelerated timetable for hearing the case, with arguments set for May 17. The court did not set a timeline for the ruling.
Any appeal to the Supreme Court would follow within three months of the verdict, but without a deadline for the justices to decide whether to review the case.