Mifepristone ruling – latest: Supreme Court decision keeps medical abortion pill approval in place

The nation’s highest court will weigh in on a challenge to the FDA’s approval of the drug

(AFP via Getty Images)

The US Supreme Court has kept the government’s approval of a widely used abortion drug in place, while one of the biggest battles over abortion rights since the end of Roe v Wadecontinues in federal courts.

Justices on the nation’s highest court have paused a lower court ruling that challenge the government’s 23-year-old approval of mifepristone, part of a two-drug protocol for medication abortion, the most common form of abortion in the US.

Following an appeal from the Biden administration and drugmakers, the court paused a federal judge’s ruling that would strip the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, which was first approved by the government agency in 2000.

A ruling to strike down the FDA’s approval of the drug would have drastically impacted access to abortion and miscarriage care for millions of Americans across the country, including in states where it is legally protected.

Key Points

• Supreme Court preserves abortion drug approval as case continues
• What is mifepristone?
• How the challenge to mifepristone landed at the Supreme Court

[20 April 2023 21:30 · Alex Woodward]

What is mifepristone?

The future of abortion access is back in the hands of the Supreme Court, which is reviewing a challenge from anti-abortion activists to reverse the federal government’s approval of mifepristone, a widely used drug for medication abortion procedures and miscarriage care.

Stripping the government’s approval could devastate access to abortion and miscarriage care for millions of Americans across the country, including in states where access is legally protected.

[20 April 2023 22:00 · Alex Woodward]

Supreme Court chief justice asked to testify before Senate on ethics rules after Clarence Thomas revelations

US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has been summoned to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about the court’s ethnics rules following recent revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas’ finances.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin has asked Roberts to appear before the committee on 2 May.

[20 April 2023 23:00 · Alex Woodward]

Federal judge at centre of mifepristone case failed to disclose interviews with Christian talk radio shows

US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk failed to disclose during his Senate confirmation process that he gave two interviews with a Christian talk radio programme where he discussed contraception and gay rights.

He referred to being gay as a “lifestyle” and claiming that social norms around “people who experience same-sex attraction” would lead to clashes with religious institutions, a collapse that began with “no-fault divorce” and “permissive policies on contraception,” according to CNN.

The comments were made in 2014 on Chosen Generation, a radio show that offers “a biblical constitutional worldview,” while Ms Kacsmaryk was deputy general counsel as conservative Christian legal group First Liberty Institute.

The revelation of his failure to disclose the appearances, as required during federal judicary hearings, follows reporting that he also failed to disclose that he drafted or helped draft an article attacking abortion rights and transgender healthcare in a right-wing legal journal.

(via REUTERS)

[21 April 2023 00:00 · Alex Woodward]

‘Biden should order Clarence Thomas’s cases to be reviewed'

Noah Berlatsky writes:

Clarence Thomas allowing himself to appear compromised strikes at the heart of US democracy and makes a travesty of justice in this country. If the wealthy can wine and dine Supreme Court justices, what hope do ordinary people have of a fair hearing? Are we ruled by laws or by oligarchs? No one elected Harlan Crow to anything. Why should he get unlimited access to influence Clarence Thomas?

That’s why it’s imperative for President Joe Biden to immediately announce a review of all cases involving Thomas and identify ones in which there are egregious conflicts of interest. The administration should then consider refusing to enforce those decisions.

[21 April 2023 01:00 · Alex Woodward]

GOP megadonor leaps to defend Clarence Thomas over real estate disclosures

Republican megadoor Harlan Crow defended his friendship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in an interview with The Dallas Morning News and denied any impropriety regarding their relationship.

Mr Crow’s friendship with the most-senior jurist on the Supreme Court has come under intense scrutiny ever since investigative news outlet ProPublica reported that Mr Thomas had vactioned in luxury on Mr Crow’s dime without disclosing it. ProPublica later reported that Mr Thomas sold a home to Mr Crow but did not disclose it, despite a 1978 law that required such transactions be disclosed.

[21 April 2023 03:00 · Alex Woodward]

Wyoming abortion clinic opens after arson attack and legal threats

Weeks after the state’s governor banned abortion drugs, becomgin the first state to do so, a full-service abortion clinic has opened in the state despite an arson attack and laws that could force it to shut down in a state with some of the most severe restrictions on care.

Wellspring Health Access clinic provide both medication abortions and procedural abortions and surgical abortions, at least for now.

The state’s law against mifepristone will take effect from 1 July. The law makes it illegal to “prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion”.

The law states that doctors or anyone else found guilty of prescribing the medication could be charged with a misdemeanour, punishable by up to six months in prison and a $9,000 (£7,387) fine.

(AP)

[21 April 2023 05:00 · Alex Woodward]

Abortion access has been nearly eliminated across the South

Abortion is effectively outlawed in more than a dozen states, mostly in the South, following the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the constitutional right to abortion care last June.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill into law that bans abortions in the state at six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant.

Abortion patients will now have to travel more than 1,000 miles for legal access to abortion care in the region.

[21 April 2023 08:00 · Alex Woodward]

What happens if mifepristone is not available?

Abortion providers and civil rights groups have warned of grave consequences to the loss of widely used abortion drugs from the market.

Providers could turn to a misoprostol-only medication abortion regimen, though that would be considered an “off-label” pharmaceutical use for the drug in the US. Misoprostol is currently approved by the FDA for the prevention and treatment of gastric ulcers but also is administered for other obstetric or gynecologic care.

Several Democratic-led states are stocking up on mifepristone and proposing legal protections for pharmacists and providers who dispense the drug.

A ruling that undermines the FDA’s drug approval process could also open the door for other activist-driven legal battles over other drugs, potentially inviting other destabilising lawsuits to Covid-19 vaccines, contraception, HIV medication, gender-affirming care, and other life-saving drugs.

The Biden administration will “continue to fight” for abortion rights regardless of the court’s decision, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on 19 April.

[21 April 2023 09:00 · Alex Woodward]

Can the FDA just ignore the ruling?

That’s what several members of Congress have argued, though President Joe Biden’s administration and abortion rights advocates have stressed that the case must play out in court and affirm the FDA’s ability to make such decisions.

Democratic senator Ron Wyden, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the FDA, has repeatedly argued that the administration ignore a ruling that undermines the FDA’s regulatory powers.

US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has argued that an increasingly partisan-driven federal judiciary weaponised by right-wing activist groups has undermined its legitimacy in making such decisions.

Republican US Rep Nancy Mace also has suggested that a ruling that revokes the FDA’s approval of the drug should be ignored or tossed out.

[21 April 2023 10:00 · Alex Woodward]

Here is what the Supreme Court is doing about the mifepristone lawsuit

The order from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who presides over the district where the mifepristone challenge was filed, was published on the so-called “shadow docket” where the court handles both procedural manners and emergency motions that can have profound implications.

Justice Alito’s brief order to pause a federal court’s decision that would reverse the FDA’s approval for mifepristone keeps the status quo in place until midnight on 21 April, at the latest.

But it is unclear what the court will do next.

The court will not be ruling on the merits of the case, but it will determine how or if mifepristone can be dispensed while the case continues to play out.

After the court makes a decision, the case returns to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana. Both parties will have a chance to file briefs, and the case will be argued before a three-judge panel on 17 May.