US Supreme Court upholds access to abortion pills

2023-04-22 08:18:57, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Supreme Court decided on Friday to preserve women's access to the abortion drug pending the conclusion of a trial on the matter. In doing so, the Court ruled in favor of urgent requests by the Biden administration and the maker of the drug mifepristone to block the enforcement of a lower court ruling that sought to ban the pill nationwide.

Now, the Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories have appealed the Texas court's decision, which if upheld would have overturned a Food and Drug Administration decision to allow the use of mifepristone.

The drug has been approved for use in the US since 2000 and has been used by more than 5 million women. Mifepristone is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol, in more than half of all abortions performed in the US.

With this decision, it is likely that access to mifepristone will be guaranteed at least until next year, while the battle continues in the appeals court, including the chances that the case will go to the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who authored last year's decision overturning Roe v. Wade that provided federal protections for abortion, along with fellow Justice Clarence Thomas, voted to enact restrictions on the pill. for abortion. No other judge has commented on the case.

President Joe Biden praised the Supreme Court decision that preserves access to the pill as the court battle continues.

" The stakes have never been higher for women across America. I will continue the fight against politically motivated attacks on women's health. The American people must continue to use the ballot as their voice, and elect a Congress that will pass a law that restores the protections guaranteed in Roe v. Wade ," President Biden said in a statement.

The legal challenge against mifepristone, brought by abortion opponents, is the first abortion controversy to reach the nation's highest court since its conservative majority overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision 10 months ago, allowing more more than 12 states ban abortion.

In the majority opinion last June, Justice Alito wrote that one reason for overturning Row v. Wade was to take the federal courts out of the abortion battle.

" It is time to pay attention to the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the elected representatives of the people ," he wrote.

But even after that victory, abortion opponents returned to the federal courts with a new objective: challenging abortion drugs, which are used in more than half of abortions nationwide.

Over the years, the Food and Drug Administration has relaxed the terms of use of mifepristone, allowing it to be mailed to states that allow access to it.

Abortion opponents filed a lawsuit in Texas in November, claiming that the original 23-year-old Food and Drug Administration decision to allow mifepristone use and subsequent amendments were flawed.

On April 7, they won a case heard by a Texas judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump, who overturned the Food and Drug Administration's decision on mifepristone. The judge gave the Biden administration and Danco Laboratories a week to appeal the case, and during that week his decision would not take effect.

Two other appeals courts, with judges also appointed by Mr. Trump, upheld only parts of Mr. Kacsmaryk's ruling as the legal battle continues, rulings that would also impose restrictions on the use of mifepristone.

In a decision that has created even more confusion, a federal judge in Washington ordered the Food and Drug Administration to maintain access to mifepristone, under current rules, in 17 Democratic-led states, including the nation's capital.

The Biden administration has said the decisions contradict each other and create a problematic situation for the Food and Drug Administration.

The Supreme Court was only asked to block the decisions of the lower courts until the conclusion of the legal case./ VOA