The company, which makes one of the most widely used abortion pills in the United States, appealed to the Supreme Court on Friday against an appellate court decision seeking to restore certain restrictions on access to the pill.
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A federal appeals court in New Orleans (Southeast) ruled in August in favor of returning to a limit of seven weeks of pregnancy instead of 10, banning the abortion pill from being mailed through the mail, and reintroducing only a prescription by a doctor.
However, the entry into force of this decision is subject to possible confirmation by the Supreme Court, as the Court of Appeal itself had pointed out.
The US Department of Justice should join Danco’s appeal regarding the conditions of access to mifepristone (RU 486), which, along with another stamp, has been used by 5.6 million women since it was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000.
The company specifically criticizes the appeals court’s decision for recognizing “an interest in action” for plaintiffs, physicians’ or practitioners’ associations hostile to voluntary termination of pregnancy, “who do not prescribe or use this pill and have an actual disagreement with it.” The FDA is their opposition to any form of abortion.”
Their argument was essentially based on the failure to assess possible additional risks to women’s health, despite the scientific consensus, caused by the FDA’s decision to relax access to the pill since 2016.
On June 24, 2022, the conservative-majority Supreme Court, following appointments under President Donald Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade, who guaranteed American women’s right to abortion since 1973 and gave every state back the freedom to legislate on the matter.
Since then, the country has been divided into about twenty states that have banned or severely restricted access to abortion, mostly in the south and center of the country, and others that have introduced new guarantees.