US Supreme Court preserves broad access to abortion pills until further notice, rejecting lower court decision. Access to America’s most common abortion method is therefore unchanged until at least next year. Two of the court’s nine justices opposed the decision, which is the largest abortion issue to reach the U.S. Supreme Court since last summer’s overturning of the precedent Roe v. Wade, which allowed states to impose extensive restrictions on abortion rights themselves or outright bans on abortion. The new decision means that mifepristone, which has been approved for use in the United States by the FDA since 2000 and used by five million people, may continue to be used as before pending an upcoming court decision in an appeals court. In the future, an appeal from the White House and the pharmaceutical manufacturer regarding a ban will be decided there. My administration “will continue to defend the FDA’s independent expert authority to review, approve and regulate a vast array of prescription drugs,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement. Gnarly tours The legal tours are tricky. The case was initiated when a group of abortion opponents pursued the issue. They filed a lawsuit in the Amarillo District of Texas, guaranteeing the case would go before Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an anti-abortion appointee appointed by then-President Donald Trump. The group argued that the drug was unsafe and that the original FDA approval had flaws. Kacsmaryk ruled on a ban on mifepristone, marking the first time a district judge overturned an FDA decision. At essentially the same time, a Washington judge ruled to the contrary, paving the way for the matter to be taken up in a higher court. The US government and the White House immediately announced that the Texas ruling would be appealed. Could become significant An appeals court in New Orleans decided to partially overturn the Texas ban, but with restrictions such as that the pill must be prescribed by a doctor and cannot be prescribed remotely for delivery by mail. Had the Texas ruling been upheld, it would have opened the door for a variety of FDA drug approvals to be subject to litigation. It is both the appeals court’s and the Texas judgment’s decisions that the Supreme Court is now pausing, while waiting for the appeals court to review the appeals from, among other things, the government. “Americans need only look into their medicine cabinets to see how many FDA-approved drugs are at risk if lower court decisions, which disregard the FDA’s scientific judgment, are allowed to stand,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement. From the opposing side, they downplay the significance and say that the decision to preserve the status quo is standard while the legal process takes its course. “We look forward to a final decision in this case where we will hold the FDA accountable,” said Erik Baptist, counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom organization, in a statement.
t4-general
US keeps abortion pills – for now
