The US Supreme Court extended a temporary hold on new restrictions imposed by a federal judge in Texas on a widely used abortion pill, giving the justices until Friday to decide how to handle the case.
(Bloomberg) — The US Supreme Court extended a temporary hold on new restrictions imposed by a federal judge in Texas on a widely used abortion pill, giving the justices until Friday to decide how to handle the case.
The court is weighing a request by the Biden administration and Danco Laboratories LLC, the drug’s maker, to put the restrictions on hold while the legal fight goes forward. They say the curbs will create regulatory chaos and make it impossible to sell mifepristone in the near term. Mifepristone, part of a two-drug regimen, is used in more than half of US abortions.
The Supreme Court extended the stay in a pair of orders by Justice Samuel Alito, who is assigned to handle emergency matters from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals. Administrative stays are designed to preserve the status quo for a short period, not to suggest any views on the merits of a case.
Alito, who had previously put the restrictions on hold until Wednesday, gave no explanation.
US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Donald Trump appointee who has written critically about Roe v. Wade, invalidated the Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of mifepristone, saying the agency had given short shrift to safety issues.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals then partially stayed that ruling, leaving mifepristone’s approval in force while blocking steps the FDA took to loosen restrictions starting in 2016.
The case represents the Supreme Court’s first abortion test since it overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in June and let states enforce bans for the first time in a half century.
The cases are Danco Laboratories v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, 22A901, and US Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, 22A902.
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