Supreme Court extends access to abortion pills through Friday: Justices block Texas judge’s controversial mifepristone ruling — for now
- Justice Alito’s stay order extends the deadline to just before midnight on Friday
- Federal judges in Texas have permanently banned mifepristone
- The Court of Appeal blocked a ban on the pill but imposed strict restrictions
The Supreme Court has extended access to an abortion pill until just before midnight on Friday.
In an order signed Wednesday by Judge Samuel Alito, the court said it would act through Friday night — but didn’t explain why the court was deferring a more permanent decision.
Judges initially set a deadline Wednesday in a fast-moving Texas case in which anti-abortion activists are trying to reverse the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone — one of the most common methods of medical abortion in the United States.
The case follows a ruling by US District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk earlier this month that would have banned the abortion drug. An appeals court was quick to block a ban on the pill but imposed tough access restrictions – all ensuring review by the country’s highest court.
The Supreme Court has expanded access to mifepristone, a pill that induces medical abortions
The Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the drug’s maker, want the Supreme Court to overrule lower court-imposed restrictions on the use of mifepristone, at least as long as the case makes its way through the courts.
The generic version of mifepristone accounts for two-thirds of supply in the United States, its manufacturer, Las Vegas-based GenBioPro Inc., wrote in a court filing that underscored the dangers of enacting the restrictions.
Depending on what the judges decide, that could involve women having to take a higher dose of the drug than the FDA believes is necessary.
The legal battle over the abortion comes less than a year after conservative judges reversed Roe. v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to outright ban abortion.
The court also said the drug should only be approved in the first seven weeks of pregnancy, although the FDA endorsed its use beyond 10 weeks in 2016.
Assistant Judge Samuel Alito issued a statement Wednesday that the country’s highest court would act on the issue of the abortion pill mifepristone by Friday night
A box of one mifepristone tablet used to induce medical abortions.
To make matters worse, a federal judge in Washington has ordered the FDA to maintain access to mifepristone under current regulations in 17 Democratic-ruled states and the District of Columbia, which has filed a separate lawsuit.
The Biden administration said the rulings are contradictory and create an untenable situation for the FDA.
The White House is preparing to act once a final ruling is reached.
“That has high priority. We’re watching this closely and what decisions – what decisions might result from it,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.
“We are prepared for any outcome that the Supreme Court may pronounce and we are prepared for a lengthy legal battle if necessary,” she added.