US Supreme Court to maintain access to abortion drug Mifepristone

The US Supreme Court is likely to keep a medicine that is used in most abortions available, in the court ’s first abortion case since conservative justices overturned Roev. Wade two years in the past.

During about 90 minutes of talking, most people agreed that the people against abortion who sued the FDA over the approval of mifepristone and making it easier to get it, don’t have the right to sue.

This decision means the current rules will stay the same. Patients can still get the drug in the mail without seeing a doctor in person. They can also use the medication to have an abortion up to 10 weeks into their pregnancy. If the court decides not to take a stance, it would avoid the parts of the case that could cause controversy.

The high court is looking at abortion again after making a big decision in 2022 that caused many Republican-led states to make strict rules against abortion.

Lawyer Elizabeth Prelogar, who represents the Biden administration in the Supreme Court, said that the court should throw out the case and make it clear that doctors and organizations who are against abortion don’t have the right to bring this case.

Three judges who were in the group that wanted to overturn Roe asked tough questions to the lawyer for the people who want to ban abortion. Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh were chosen by former president Donald Trump to be Supreme Court judges.

Barrett didn’t think the two doctors mentioned by lawyer Erin Hawley could prove they were harmed by the FDA’s actions, which is needed to show standing.

“I believe the problem is that these affidavits seem to show that the objection is only to taking part in the abortion and ending the life of the embryo or fetus. ” “And I also don’t have any record of them being involved in that,” Barrett said.

Kavanaugh only asked one question during the whole meeting, and it was about the technical issue of standing. He wanted Prelogar to confirm that doctors can’t be made to do abortions if it goes against their beliefs.

Those against abortion want the judges to approve a decision from a conservative court that would make it harder to get mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions.

That decision had a quick impact on politics, and the result in the upcoming case, which is expected by early summer, could change the outcome of elections for Congress and the White House.

Another abortion case is already scheduled to be heard in court. Next month, the judges will listen to arguments about whether a law requiring hospitals to provide emergency treatment should also include abortions, even in states where they are banned.

On Tuesday morning, there were a lot of people outside the Supreme Court. Some were on the streets around the court, and there were also groups marching and shouting about the issue. The police stopped cars from going near the court.

If the court rules against abortion, it could stop mifepristone from being sent through the mail or sold at big pharmacies. It could also stop telehealth visits where the drug is prescribed.

The US President Joe Biden’s team and drug makers are saying that this could also make it harder for the FDA to approve drugs because judges might start questioning the agency’s decisions. The Democratic government and Danco Laboratories in New York say that the drug mifepristone is one of the safest drugs approved by the FDA.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was chosen by President Biden and started working in the court right after the last abortion case, showed that she agreed with some of those points when she questioned Jessica Ellsworth, who is Danco’s lawyer. “Whether she’s worried about judges analyzing medical and scientific research. ”

Abortion opponents say the FDA made bad choices in 2016 and 2021 by making it easier to get the abortion pill, which could harm women’s health. They are asking the court to support a decision that would bring back important protections for women using abortion drugs. Senator Hawley’s wife is representing the clients in this legal case. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, and one of their kids were in the courtroom to see her make her first arguments.

The mifepristone case started five months after the Supreme Court changed the decision on Roe v. Those who are against abortion won a big decision almost a year ago from US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who was chosen by Trump in Texas. The decision would have taken away the approval for the drug completely. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. However, it would undo modifications that officials made in 2016 and 2021 to make it easier to give the drug.

The Supreme Court stopped the appeals court’s changed decision, and decided to consider the case. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas wanted to allow some restrictions while the case continued.

During a legal discussion, Alito and Thomas asked only a few questions about the case, such as sending mifepristone through mail.

They talked about the Comstock Act, an old law that is rarely used and is 151 years old. People who are against abortion are using this law to try to stop mifepristone from being delivered in the U.S Letter Thomas told Ellsworth that the law is wide and includes drugs like yours.

Some people who support abortion rights are worried that the court’s decision may not do anything about the Comstock Act.