Anti-abortion groups ask US Supreme Court to limit pill access for now
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The legal saga over mifepristone heated up on April 7 when a conservative federal judge in Texas issued a nationwide ban of the drug.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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WASHINGTON - An anti-abortion coalition, seeking to overturn US authorisation of the widely used drug mifepristone, requested on Tuesday that the Supreme Court ban access to the pill while a lawsuit works through lower tribunals.
The Supreme Court, which last week placed a temporary hold
The “administrative stay” gave the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the anti-abortion groups seeking to ban mifepristone until Tuesday to submit their briefs.
Mifepristone has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as safe for use since 2000, with subsequent authorisations expanding access to the drug to up to 10 weeks into pregnancy and allowing the pill to be delivered by mail.
The legal saga over mifepristone, which accounts for more than half of all abortions in the United States, heated up on April 7 when a conservative federal judge in Texas ruled on the side of the anti-abortion groups, issuing a nationwide ban of the drug.
Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, however, said that his ruling – a temporary measure while the full case would be heard – would not take effect until after a week-long delay.
The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees cases out of Texas, then quickly overruled Judge Kacsmaryk’s total ban, but did allow for new limitations including limiting access to the drug up to seven weeks of pregnancy and blocking it from being distributed by mail.
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, must therefore decide whether to reinstate the restrictions put in place at the appellate level, the total ban or some other configuration.
In its emergency request to the Supreme Court, the DOJ said the ruling by Judge Kacsmaryk who was appointed by former president Donald Trump was based on a “deeply misguided assessment of mifepristone’s safety” and also took issue with the Fifth Circuit’s decision.
Danco Laboratories, the distributor of mifepristone which it markets under the brand name Mifeprex, had also asked the Supreme Court in a separate filing to stay the lower courts’ rulings, saying they risked creating “regulatory chaos”.
“For nearly a quarter century, applicants FDA and Danco have brazenly flouted the law and applicable regulations, disregarded holes and red flags in their own safety data, intentionally evaded judicial review, and continually placed politics above women’s health,” the anti-abortion coalition said in its Supreme Court filing.
More than a dozen US states have passed laws banning or severely restricting abortion since the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the Roe versus Wade ruling that had enshrined the constitutional right to the procedure for half a century.
Mifepristone is one component of a two-drug regimen that can be used through the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
It has a long safety record and the FDA estimates 5.6 million Americans have used it to terminate pregnancies since it was approved. AFP
