On Friday April 21st, the Supreme Court went ahead and temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that had placed significant restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone. ‘As a result of the Supreme Court’s stay, mifepristone remains available and approved for safe and effective use while we continue this fight in the courts,’ Biden explained in a statement. ‘The stakes could not be higher for women across America. I will continue to fight political driven attacks on women’s health.’
The Justices granted emergency requests by the justice department and the pill’s manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, to prevent a preliminary injunction issued by federal judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, in Texas. This ruling would drastically limit the availability of the medication as legal action proceeds in a challenge by anti-abortion groups.
Matthew Kacsmaryk first ruled in the lawsuit initiated by a coalition of anti-abortion groups to suspend the FDA’s longstanding authorization of mifepristone completely, claiming the agency wrongly approved the drug: a conservative Christian legal group argued that the Food and Drug Administration improperly approved mifepristone more than 23 years ago. Following the Biden administration’s defense in the fifth circuit court of appeals, a divided three-judge panel declared the drug’s approval will stand yet imposed restrictions on the prescription, limiting its use to seven weeks of pregnancy instead of the current 10-week limit as well as banning the pill via mail delivery. Responding to this outcome, Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to halt the restrictions imposed and as a result, the access to mifepristone stayed unaltered.
The Biden administration persistently defended the FDA against the charge, emphasizing its rigorous safety reviews of the drug and warned of potential chaos if plaintiffs and judges who are not well versed in scientific and medical arguments start to undermine the agency’s decision-making. Both Biden administration and pharmaceutical suggested that, should the Supreme Court allow the restrictions on access to mifepristone, it will result in chaos.
‘If this decision stands, no medication – from chemotherapy drugs to asthma medicine, to blood pressure pills, to insulin – would be safe from attacks,’ US Vice-President, Kamala Harris, claims in a statement responding to the appellate decision and following President Biden’s written statement about the danger of giving power to these political and ideological attacks on prescription.
Having the Biden administration ask the Supreme Court to intervene before restrictions fall into place gives increasing political significance in the latest fierce legal battle over reproductive rights in the US. The Supreme Court’s decision comes at a pivotal point in the polarizing divide of the abortion rights case following the overturning of Roe v Wade last year.