Mifepristone, a leading contraceptive drug, will remain legal for now, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday, as an appeal moves forward on the case that could have far-reaching implications for reproductive rights. and the power of the Food and Drug Administration. The court suspended a decision by conservative judge Donald Trump – who was appointed in Texas banning the drug as the appeal works its way through the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. This is a temporary victory for the Biden administration in its fight to protect abortion access in post-Red America. Mifepristone, along with misoprostol, is used in more than half of the abortions performed in the US.
The Supreme Court decision is the latest twist in a closely watched legal battle between Biden’s Justice Department and a conservative legal group, the Alliance Defending Freedom, which sued the FDA over the 2000 approval for mifepristone. The mifepristone case is one of the later anti-abortion efforts to reach the Supreme Court since the justices reversed themselves. Roe v. Wade June last year.
The trial began in Texas, where a conservative judge was appointed by Trump earlier this month. Matthew Kacsmaric they issued a decision in the case that would have revoked the FDA’s approval for the drug – despite it having been on the market for more than two decades. Attorney General Merrick Garland filed an appeal with the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals within hours. A three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld the FDA’s 2000 approval of mifepristone—arguing that too much time had passed for the plaintiffs’ challenge. But he sided with Kacsmaryk’s decision to cancel the FDA’s most recent changes that began in 2016 — which expanded access to mifepristone, allowing it to be delivered to patients by mail. , and which extended the use of the drug up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Following the Fifth Circuit Court’s decision, the Department of Justice filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court to uphold the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. This Friday, Justice Samuel Alito they issued an order suspending the restrictions placed on the drug by the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for Disability. While mifepristone will remain on the shelves for now as a win for access, reproductive rights activists stress that this lawsuit could still have far-reaching consequences.
“We are in the midst of an abortion access crisis…. A lot of pressure is placed on states that are abortion access states to provide care to those patients who do not have the ability to access that care within their own state. So you add this on top of that, you’re perpetuating and exacerbating an already fragile public health system — it’s dangerous,” the reproductive rights advocate said of the anti-abortion campaign. -latest pregnancies.
This person said, “This is another attack on abortion in this country, and it is politically motivated, not based in science or law.”
