Pro-abortion rights protesters at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC, April 15, 2023.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | beautiful pictures
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the widespread sale of the abortion drug mifepristone to continue as litigation unfolds in lower court.
The decision of the supreme court was made in response to the urgent request of Department of Justice to block lower court rulings that would severely limit access to the drug even in some states where abortion still legal.
The case will now be heard in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States. The Court of Appeals scheduled oral arguments for Wednesday, May 17 at 1 p.m. CT.
Mifepristone has been a flashpoint in the legal battle over abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, the landmark 1973 decision to ensure nationwide abortion was a constitutional right.
Mifepristone, used in combination with another drug called misoprostol, is the most common method of termination of pregnancy in the United States, accounting for about half of all abortions.
President Joe Biden said the court’s decision to continue providing mifepristone to women and FDA approval for early termination of pregnancy. Biden said his administration will fight to protect access to mifepristone in the ongoing legal battle in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“I continue to stand by [the Food and Drug Administration’s] approved the evidence-based mifepristone, and my administration will continue to defend the FDA’s independent, expert authority to review, approve, and regulate many prescription drugs,” the president said.
Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson said the reproductive health care provider was relieved by the Supreme Court’s decision.
But McGill Johnson warned that access to mifepristone remained in jeopardy as the legal battle raged in appeals court.
“While the approval of mifepristone is intact and it is still on the market to date, patients and healthcare providers should not be left to the court system,” said McGill Johnson. . “Medical abortion is still under threat – as is abortion and access to other sexual and reproductive health care services.”
Judges Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, both conservatives, opposed the court’s majority decision to approve the emergency request from the DOJ and Danco Laboratories, the distributor of the brand-name version of the drug. medicine, Mifeprex.
The DOJ and Danco, in their emergency requests, told the Supreme Court that restrictions imposed by lower courts would effectively remove mifepristone from the market for months as the FDA regulates it. drug labeling to comply with orders. They argue that this would deny women access to an FDA-approved drug as a safe alternative to surgical abortion.
Alito refuted that argument in his dissent. Justice said the FDA could simply exercise its enforcement discretion as the case progresses and allow Danco to continue distributing mifepristone.
The court’s majority decision to maintain the status quo means mifepristone is still available by mail and women can get prescriptions without the need to see a doctor in person.
However, in the dozens of states that have effectively banned abortion in the past year, the drug will largely be unavailable. Other states also have restrictions that are much stricter than those set by the FDA.
National legal battle over mifepristone begins with a lawsuit by a coalition of doctors who oppose abortion, the Hippocratic Medical Union. Those doctors sought to force the FDA to completely withdraw the drug from the United States.
Earlier this month, US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruling in favor of anti-abortion doctors and issuing a sweeping order that could halt the nationwide sale of mifepristone.
A few days later, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals partially blocked Kacsmaryk’s order and allowed Mifeprex to continue circulating in the market. But appeals court judges have imposed restrictions on the drug that would severely limit access.
The appeals court blocked mailing of the pills, imposed doctor’s visits as a condition for receiving the pills, and reduced the length of time women could take the pills until the seventh week of pregnancy.
The appellate court judges also suspended the 2019 approval of the original version of mifepristone. The company that sold the original version, GenBioPro, told the high court that much of the nation’s drug supply would “disappear overnight” if the appeals court’s ruling goes into effect.
GenBioPro says it supplies two-thirds of the mifepristone used in abortions in the US
