The Supreme Court has now intervened in the dispute over the approval of the mifepristone abortion pill in the US. With an injunction on Friday, Justice determined that the drug should be available until midnight on Wednesday (local time). He was responding to a motion filed by the administration of President Joe Biden and a manufacturer contesting an appeals court order. This instance decided that mifepristone should only be available and used with restrictions.
The appeals court came after a decision by a Texas federal court to suspend the drug’s approval altogether. Mifepristone was approved in the United States in 2000 and is commonly used with the pregnancy termination medication misoprostol. But it can also be used alone. The World Health Organization only recommends this if mifepristone is not available. According to the FDA, mifepristone is a trusted drug.
Opponents of abortion have filed a lawsuit in Texas against the approval – they want to make access to medical abortion more difficult. Last year, the right-wing Supreme Court overturned the country’s abortion law, which had been in effect for nearly 50 years.