The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously preserved access to a medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year, in the court’s first abortion decision since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. The justices ruled that abortion opponents lacked the legal right to sue over the federal Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the medication, mifepristone, and the FDA’s subsequent actions to ease access to it.
Quick Read
- The Supreme Court unanimously preserved access to mifepristone, a medication used in nearly two-thirds of U.S. abortions last year, marking its first abortion decision since overturning Roe v. Wade.
- The justices ruled that abortion opponents lacked the legal right to sue over the FDA’s approval and subsequent actions to ease access to mifepristone.
- This decision maintains access to mifepristone nationwide, including in states where abortion remains legal.
- The high court is also considering another case about whether federal emergency treatment laws override state abortion bans in critical health situations for pregnant patients.
- Since 2000, over 6 million people have used mifepristone, which, combined with misoprostol, ends pregnancies up to 10 weeks gestation.
- Health care providers warned that if mifepristone became unavailable, they would switch to misoprostol alone, which is less effective.
- The Biden administration and drug manufacturers argued that limiting access to mifepristone could undermine the FDA’s drug approval process.
- Abortion opponents claimed the FDA’s decisions to relax restrictions on mifepristone jeopardized women’s health.
- The case began with a ruling from U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, which sought to revoke the drug’s approval, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the initial approval to stand while challenging relaxed restrictions.
- The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and put the appeals court’s modified ruling on hold, with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas initially favoring some restrictions.
The Associated Press has the story:
Unanimous Supreme Court preserves access to widely used abortion medication
Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP) —
The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously preserved access to a medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year, in the court’s first abortion decision since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.
The justices ruled that abortion opponents lacked the legal right to sue over the federal Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the medication, mifepristone, and the FDA’s subsequent actions to ease access to it.
The case had threatened to restrict access to mifepristone across the country, including in states where abortion remains legal.
The high court is separately considering another abortion case, about whether a federal law on emergency treatment at hospitals overrides state abortion bans in rare emergency cases in which a pregnant patient’s health is at serious risk.
More than 6 million people have used mifepristone since 2000. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone and primes the uterus to respond to the contraction-causing effect of a second drug, misoprostol. The two-drug regimen has been used to end a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation.
Health care providers have said that if mifepristone is no longer available or is too hard to obtain, they would switch to using only misoprostol, which is somewhat less effective in ending pregnancies.
President Joe Biden’s administration and drug manufacturers had warned that siding with abortion opponents in this case could undermine the FDA’s drug approval process beyond the abortion context by inviting judges to second-guess the agency’s scientific judgments. The Democratic administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, which makes mifepristone, argued that the drug is among the safest the FDA has ever approved.
The abortion opponents argued in court papers that the FDA’s decisions in 2016 and 2021 to relax restrictions on getting the drug were unreasonable and “jeopardize women’s health across the nation.”
The mifepristone case began five months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. Abortion opponents initially won a sweeping ruling nearly a year ago from U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump nominee in Texas, which would have revoked the drug’s approval entirely. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals left intact the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone. But it would reverse changes regulators made in 2016 and 2021 that eased some conditions for administering the drug.
The Supreme Court put the appeals court’s modified ruling on hold, then agreed to hear the case, though Justices Samuel Alito, the author of the decision overturning Roe, and Clarence Thomas would have allowed some restrictions to take effect while the case proceeded.
