The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a bid by President Biden’s administration to preserve broad access to the abortion pill, called mifepristone. The high court ended its recognition of a constitutional right to abortion in 2022.
The justices agreed to hear the appeal of an August decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that would curb how the pill is delivered and distributed, barring telemedicine prescriptions and shipments by mail of the drug. The high court also agreed to hear an appeal by the drug’s manufacturer, Danco Laboratories. The 5th Circuit’s decision is currently on hold pending the outcome of the appeal at the Supreme Court in a challenge to the pill brought in Texas by anti-abortion groups and doctors. The justices are expected to hear arguments in the coming months and issue a decision by the end of June.
In its filing to the Supreme Court, the Justice Department said that allowing the 5th Circuit’s restrictions to take effect would have “damaging consequences for women seeking lawful abortions and a healthcare system that relies on the availability of the drug under the current conditions of use.” The case could put at risk the authority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA gave regulatory approval to mifepristone in 2000, calling the drug safe and effective as demonstrated over its decades of use by millions of American women, with adverse effects rare. Mifepristone is taken alongside another drug, misoprostol, to perform medicated abortion, which accounts for more than half of all U.S. abortions. Besides medication abortion, mifepristone has other uses including management of miscarriages.
Biden’s administration is seeking to defend mifepristone as abortion bans after restrictions were enforced by many Repuvlican-governed states, since the Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
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