Washington (United States) (AFP) – The US Supreme Court on Monday temporarily lifted a lower court’s ban on mail delivery of the widely used abortion drug mifepristone. The top court’s order restores mail access to mifepristone, which is used in the majority of abortions in the United States, until at least May 11.
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals had halted nationwide mail delivery of mifepristone on Friday in a lawsuit brought against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the state of Louisiana, which has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country. Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, which manufacture mifepristone, asked the Supreme Court for a one-week pause on the appeals court order while they prepare to bring an emergency case to the top court. The conservative-majority Supreme Court agreed without explanation to pause the appeals court ruling until at least May 11 while the parties file legal briefs.
The 5th Circuit ruling would require women seeking abortions anywhere in the United States to obtain mifepristone in person from health clinics and ban delivery by mail or through a pharmacy after using telemedicine. The conservative-dominated appeals court overturned a district court ruling that allowed mifepristone to continue to be delivered by mail while the FDA conducts a “safety study” of the drug.
Julia Kaye, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, welcomed the Supreme Court’s move. “While this is a positive short-term development, no one can rest easy when our ability to get this safe, effective medication for abortion and miscarriage care still hangs in the balance,” Kaye said. Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, stated that obtaining abortion pills through telehealth has been a “lifeline for women.” “There is no reason people shouldn’t be able to get mifepristone at a pharmacy or through the mail,” Northup said.
The anti-abortion Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) stressed that the Supreme Court move was not a “reversal” of the 5th Circuit’s ruling but a temporary pause. “We respect the Court’s desire to have time to consider the issues and will continue our fight to uphold this victory that protects women and babies across the country from FDA’s unlawful and destructive mail-order abortion-drug scheme,” ADF said on X.
Mifepristone has been approved by the FDA since 2000 and is also routinely used for managing early miscarriages. Anti-abortion activists, however, have called the drug’s safety into question, with some citing a study conducted by a conservative think tank that never underwent a formal peer review. Mifepristone, which prevents pregnancy progression, and misoprostol, which empties the uterus, are approved to terminate a pregnancy up to 70 days of gestation in the United States.
More than 20 states have banned or restricted abortion since the Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that enshrined the constitutional right to abortion for half a century. Polls show a majority of Americans support continued access to safe abortion, even as conservative groups push to limit the procedure or ban it outright.
In 2024, the US Supreme Court rejected a bid to restrict mifepristone, ruling that anti-abortion groups and doctors challenging the medication lacked the legal standing to bring the case.
© 2024 AFP
