Supreme Court keeps mifepristone available without restrictions

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the abortion drug mifepristone to be made widely available as cases unfold in lower courts.

The High Court’s decision was made in response to the Department of Justice’s urgent request to block lower court rulings that severely restrict access to drugs, even in some states where abortion is still legal.

The case is now scheduled to be heard in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Court of Appeals is scheduled for oral argument on Wednesday, May 17, at 1:00 pm (CT).

Mifepristone has become the centerpiece of legal battles over abortion. Last summer, the Supreme Court overturned his Roe v. Wade decision, a landmark decision that guaranteed abortion as a national constitutional right in 1973.

Mifepristone, used in combination with another drug called misoprostol, is the most common method of aborting pregnancies in the United States, accounting for about half of all abortions.

President Joe Biden said a Supreme Court decision made mifepristone available to women and the FDA approved termination of early pregnancies. In the struggle, he said his administration would fight to protect access to mifepristone.

“I continue to support the FDA’s evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and my administration will continue to defend the FDA’s independent expert body that reviews, approves, and regulates a wide range of prescription drugs,” Biden said. rice field.

Justices Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, both conservative, have granted urgent requests from the Justice Department and Danko Laboratories, distributors of Mifeprex, the brand-name version of the drug, to the Supreme Court. I opposed the majority decision.

The Department of Justice and Danko told the Supreme Court in an emergency request that restrictions imposed by lower courts would effectively exclude mifepristone from the market for months. It would deny women access to FDA-approved drugs that are safe alternatives, they argued.

Alito rejected the argument in a dissenting opinion. The judge said the FDA could exercise enforcement discretion as the case progressed, allowing Danco to continue distributing mifepristone.

The Supreme Court’s majority decision to maintain the status quo means that mifepristone will continue to be available by mail, allowing women to obtain prescriptions without having to see a doctor in person.

But the drug remains largely unavailable in the 12 states that have effectively banned abortion in the past year. Other states also have restrictions where they are much stricter than the FDA’s regulations.

The nationwide legal battle over mifepristone began with a lawsuit brought by the Hippocratic Medical Union, a coalition of physicians opposed to abortion. These doctors tried to force the Food and Drug Administration to remove the drug from the United States entirely.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled in favor of anti-abortion doctors and issued a sweeping order to stop the nationwide sale of mifepristone.

Days later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit blocked part of Kacsmaryk’s order, allowing a brand-name version of the drug, Mifeprex, to remain on the market. But an appeals court judge has imposed restrictions that severely limit access to medicines.

An appeals court blocked the mailing of drugs, imposed a doctor’s visit as a condition for obtaining drugs, and shortened the period women could take the pill to seven weeks pregnant.

An appeals court judge also suspended the 2019 approval of a generic version of mifepristone. His GenBioPro company, which sells generic versions, told the Supreme Court that much of the country’s drug supply would “disappear overnight” if the Court of Appeals’ ruling becomes effective.

GenBioPro says it supplies two-thirds of the mifepristone used for abortions in the United States.