Supreme Court upholds access to abortion pills
The Biden administration seized the nation’s highest court on Friday, asking it to preserve the status quo of mifepristone, access to which has been restricted by an appeals court.
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Authorized more than twenty years ago by the FDA, mifepristone is used, in combination with another drug, for more than half of abortions in the United States.
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The US Supreme Court on Friday temporarily suspended the decision of a lower court, allowing access to the abortion pill, a very widespread method of abortion in the United States, to be maintained for the time being.
This suspension is valid until Wednesday before midnight, in order to allow the parties to present their arguments, said the Supreme Court in its decision. The temple of American law had been urgently seized by the Biden government, which asked it to act before restrictions on access to this pill, ordered by an appeals court, took effect on Friday night in SATURDAY.
The ongoing legal battle, the latest twist in the assault on abortion rights in the United States, threatens to have major consequences for access throughout the United States to this pill, mifepristone.
In combination with another drug, it is used for more than half of abortions in the United States, and more than five million American women have already taken it since its authorization by the United States Medicines Agency (FDA), it over twenty years ago. If effective, a Federal Court of Appeals ruling on Wednesday would have “tremendous implications for the pharmaceutical industry, women needing access to medicine, and the FDA’s ability to implement its regulatory authority,” argued the government.
Judge seized by anti-abortion activists
Last week, a federal judge in Texas, seized by anti-abortion activists, had took of marketing authorization for mifepristone. He had provided for a one-week delay before his decision would apply.
Seized by the federal government, a Court of Appeal partially invalidated the judge’s decision, allowing the abortion pill to remain authorized for the time being – but he went back on the access facilities granted by the FDA over the years. His judgment thus amounts to prohibiting the mailing of mifepristone, and to return to a use limited to seven weeks of pregnancy, instead of ten.
Government fears ‘regulatory chaos’
In its motion, the government asks for a “suspension” of the judgment of the Court of Appeal “to preserve the status quo”, pending an examination of the case on the merits. Otherwise the restrictions, which will apply at 1 a.m. on Saturday (7 a.m. in Switzerland), will create “regulatory chaos”.
Indeed, the boxes of pills in circulation would include different indications than those ordered by the Court of Appeal, points out the government. And changing them is a process that would take “months”.
Moreover, another federal judge ruled to the contrary, prohibiting the FDA from changing the conditions for the distribution of the abortion pill in the 17 appealing states and the capital Washington, placing the agency in a ” untenable situation”, argues the government.
One of the two companies that market mifepristone in the United States, the Danco laboratory, has also asked the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, to intervene.
(AFP)
