US Supreme Court temporarily blocks restrictions on abortion pill
Published:Friday | April 14, 2023 | 9:36 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States Supreme Court said Friday it was temporarily keeping in place federal rules for use of an abortion drug, while it takes time to more fully consider the issues raised in a court challenge.
In an order signed by Justice Samuel Alito, the court put a five-day pause on the fast-moving case so the justices can decide whether lower court rulings restricting the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the drug, mifepristone, should be allowed to take effect in the short term.
The justices are being asked at this point only to determine what parts of an April 7 ruling by US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, as modified by an appellate ruling Wednesday, can be in force while the case continues.
The order expires late Wednesday, suggesting the court will decide that issue by then.
The court finds itself immersed in a new fight involving abortion less than a year after conservative justices reversed Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.
President Joe Biden's administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the maker of the pill, asked the justices to intervene.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Friday evening that the administration continues “to stand by FDA's evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and we will continue to support the FDA's independent, expert authority to review, approve, and regulate a wide range of prescription drugs.”
She added, “The stakes of this fight could not be higher in the face of ongoing attacks on women's health, and we will continue to fight to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade.
A lawyer for the anti-abortion doctors and medical organisations suing over mifepristone said the court's action Friday was “standard operating procedure” and urged the justices to allow the appeals court-ordered changes to take effect by the middle of next week.
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