The maker of a widely used abortion pill asked the US Supreme Court to uphold broad access to the drug, seeking review of a ruling that would bar mail-order prescriptions and require an in-person doctor visit.
(Bloomberg) — The maker of a widely used abortion pill asked the US Supreme Court to uphold broad access to the drug, seeking review of a ruling that would bar mail-order prescriptions and require an in-person doctor visit.
The appeal by Danco Laboratories LLC would plunge the high court back into one of the nation’s most bitterly contested and politically potent issues, setting up a ruling next year in the middle of the presidential campaign. It would be the court’s first full review in an abortion case since the 2022 decision that overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade opinion.
The Biden administration has also indicated it will seek Supreme Court review. Under its normal schedule, the court could say by the end of the year whether it will hear the case.
The justices in April issued an emergency order keeping mifepristone, as the disputed pill is known, fully available while the legal fight went forward. The court gave no explanation for that order, though two justices publicly dissented.
A US appeals court last month backed new limits on mifepristone. The 2-1 ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals partially upheld a federal trial judge’s decision that would have effectively banned the sale of the drug.
The 5th Circuit said Food and Drug Administration decisions made starting in 2016 were likely unlawful and should be rolled back. The panel said the FDA failed to adequately address safety concerns.
Those changes included an extension of mifepristone’s approval to the 10th week of pregnancy — three weeks longer than was the case previously.
Pill-based abortion has become the most popular method for terminating a pregnancy in the US and has emerged as a key target for anti-abortion advocates in the aftermath of last year’s ruling. Mifepristone is used as part of a two-pill regimen to end pregnancies and treat miscarriages. It is followed by misoprostol, which can also be used on its own to terminate a pregnancy.
“For the women and teenage girls, health care providers, and states that depend on FDA’s actions to ensure safe and effective reproductive health care is available, this case matters tremendously,” Danco said in its appeal. “And for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, permitting judicial second-guessing of FDA’s scientific evaluations of data will have a wildly destabilizing effect.”
–With assistance from Madlin Mekelburg.
(Updates with details on timeline, appeals court decision starting in third paragraph.)
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