Matt Bush, FISM News
Mifepristone, better known as “the abortion pill,” will continue to be broadly available through doctor visits, retail pharmacies, and delivery by mail after the Supreme Court preserved full access to the pill while a lawsuit works its way through the lower courts.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a ruling on April 7 that halted the FDA approval of mifepristone, but a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans partially overturned that decision one week later.
Under the appeals court decision, mifepristone was still available, albeit with certain stipulations. The drug could not be mailed to patients, had to be the result of an in-person appointment, and had to be prescribed by a physician, not a “healthcare provider.”
Last night’s Supreme Court ruling not only maintained FDA approval of the drug, but also overturned the stipulations enforced by the federal appeals court. The decision gives a major victory to the Biden administration and to supporters of abortion rights.
“The stakes could not be higher for women across America. I will continue to fight politically-driven attacks on women’s health,” Biden said. “But let’s be clear — the American people must continue to use their vote as their voice and elect a Congress who will pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade.”
The case brought to Kacsmaryk that ended up at the Supreme Court was not about the abortion pill directly, but about the way in which the FDA approved the drug in 2000. In his ruling, he said that FDA approval was granted hastily and improperly.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the group representing the pro-life plaintiffs, alleged that the FDA chose “politics over science” in their approval of the drug and in the subsequent removal of safeguards around mifepristone.
The FDA chose politics over science when it pushed to legalize chemical abortion drugs mifepristone + misoprostol in 2000.
HOW? Example: the FDA approved the drugs only by characterizing pregnancy as an “illness” and arguing that they provide a “meaningful therapeutic benefit.”
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) April 8, 2023
“As is common practice, the Supreme Court has decided to maintain the status quo that existed prior to our lawsuit while our challenge to the FDA’s illegal approval of chemical abortion drugs and its removal of critical safeguards for those drugs moves forward,” ADF lawyer Erik Baptist said in a statement.
While Baptist was downplaying the decision, abortion rights groups and liberal politicians were praising it.
“Extreme MAGA Republicans will continue to pursue their nationwide abortion ban until they impose their anti-choice agenda on all Americans. Democrats won’t stop fighting and we will prevail,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed.
Two Justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, would have denied the granting of the stays. Alito wrote a four-page dissenting opinion that says, in part, “As narrowed by the Court of Appeals, the stay that would apply if we failed to broaden it would not remove mifepristone from the market. It would simply restore the circumstances that existed (and that the Government defended) from 2000 to 2016 under three Presidential administrations.”
The next step in the process is to return to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, where that court will hear the merits of the case. It is widely expected that, no matter which side wins, the case will end up in the Supreme Court again.
According to the AP, any appeal back to the Supreme Court would follow within three months of the appeals court decision, but no timetable has been set for the initial case.