The decision of said conservative majority court released the day before allowed the entry into force of lower court rulings that imposed restrictions on mifepristone to be suspended.
According to CNN, the order halted rulings that would have cut off access to the drug as a result of a lawsuit by anti-abortion doctors seeking to remove the FDA’s approval of the pill two decades ago.
That means the FDA’s current regulatory framework around the drug remains in place, ensuring that access to medical abortion, in states where it’s legal, continues for at least the next two weeks, and probably longer, the television added.
In a statement, Biden praised the high court’s order.
“As a result of the Supreme Court stay, mifepristone remains available and approved for safe and effective use while we continue this battle in court,” the president said yesterday.
In turn, he urged Americans to “elect a Congress that passes legislation restoring Roe v. Wade”, a 1973 sentence in which the Court protected the freedom of a pregnant woman to choose an abortion without excessive government restrictions, but annulled in June of last year. Two weeks ago, US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a ruling that would have halted FDA approval of the drug in 2000, but parts of that decision were later halted by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Absent the latest ruling, there would be limits that shorten the gestation period in which the drug is available, as well as requirements for patients to obtain the drugs in person from their provider and make two other clinic visits as part of the protocol.
CNN noted that much remains to be resolved in the litigation, as the case now returns to the Fifth Circuit, which has established a schedule of expedited briefings to provide a fuller review of the Kacsmaryk ruling, and a three-judge panel will hold a hearing. hearing on May 17.
Medical abortion has been available here since 2000, but states with strict bans on the procedure also limit the pill’s availability, either through restrictions on who can prescribe and dispense it, or through outright impediments.
ef/rgh/cgc
