The US Supreme Court announced Friday that it will temporarily keep federal rules for the use of an abortion drug in effect while it further examines issues raised in a court challenge.
In an order signed by Judge Samuel Alito, the nation’s highest court asked both sides to rule by Tuesday on whether lower court rulings restricting the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug mifepristone ( FDA) must take effect while the case continues in the federal courts. The order indicates that the Court will rule on this issue late on Wednesday.
For now, the judges are only being asked to determine which parts of the ruling handed down on April 7 by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, modified by an appeal ruling on Wednesday, can be in effect as the case proceeds. course.
The administration of President Joe Biden and a drug manufacturer asked the Supreme Court hours earlier to intervene in the case and keep access to the abortion drug free from restrictions imposed by lower courts while the legal dispute continues.
The type of order issued by the Court on Friday is an administrative stay and is not normally an indication of what judges will do in the future.
The Justice Department and Danco Laboratories filed their emergency appeals with the high court less than two days after a Texas appeals court ruling adjusted the rules under which the mifepristone pill can be prescribed and sold.
The new limitations would have gone into effect on Saturday if the Court had not taken action on Friday.
The mifepristone dispute reached the Supreme Court less than a year after conservative justices struck down the Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide, allowing more than a dozen states to outright ban termination of pregnancy. The idea is to keep the FDA’s mifepristone rules in place, to give them more time to study each side’s arguments without deadline pressure.
The ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sought to prohibit sending the pill by mail or prescribing it without visiting a doctor’s office. It also sought to overturn the FDA’s rule allowing the use of mifepristone—the nation’s most common abortion method—beyond the seventh week of pregnancy. The FDA says that it can be used up to the tenth week.
The appeals court did not fully rescind the FDA’s approval of mifepristone while the dispute continues. The 5th Circuit capped a ruling by US Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, whose sweeping and unprecedented order would have blocked FDA approval of the pill. He gave the government a week to appeal.
Mifepristone was approved by the FDA more than 20 years ago and is used in combination with another drug, misoprostol.
