US Supreme Court Delays Ruling for Key Abortion Pill Mifepristone Until Friday
19:25 GMT 19.04.2023 (Updated: 20:02 GMT 19.04.2023)
© AP Photo / Allen G. Breed
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In June 2022, the US Supreme Court struck down nationwide abortion rights, with the six-justice conservative majority finding that the right was not a cornerstone of US political life protected by the Constitution. The ruling aroused fears that other such rights could also be in danger, including same-gender marriage and the right to privacy.
The US Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it would be extend its previous order temporarily halting restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone through Friday.
Last week, the high court issued an order temporarily halting a lower court's blockage of mifepristone access until it can decide whether or not to take up the case. Associate Justice Samuel Alito's order was set to expire at midnight on Wednesday, but the court has extended that by 48 hours until the end of Friday night.
BREAKING: Supreme Court *extends* its freeze on the Texas judge's anti-mifepristone ruling for one week, to April 21st. The abortion medication will remain available for now. pic.twitter.com/MthJPOtEm3
— Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) April 19, 2023
Alito's order blocked a ruling by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a district judge of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued days earlier that voided the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of mifepristone. The drug is one half of an abortion drug that, when combined with misoprostol, forms a pregnancy-ending treatment used in 54% of all abortions in the United States.
The plaintiffs in the case argued that the substance was approved in 2000 under former US President Bill Clinton in a fast-track procedure that is only permissible for substances that counteract disease, not for abortion procedures, making the approval illegal. However, it has since approved a generic version of the drug as well, in 2019.
The maker of that generic drug, GenBioPro, also filed a lawsuit against the FDA in a Maryland court on Wednesday, seeking to prohibit the agency from taking action that would restrict access to the drug.
The fight over mifepristone is the latest in an ongoing crisis over abortion access in the United States that was set in motion last June when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling by the court that granted the nationwide right to an abortion. In the 10 months since, dozens of states have either totally banned abortions or passed laws heavily restricting them. More recently, state lawmakers have looked to restrict residents' ability to travel to other states to obtain an abortion, or to order abortion medication through the mail, such as those made using mifepristone.
