The American Supreme Court announced on Wednesday, December 13, that it would take up the issue of the abortion pill, used in more than half of abortions in the United States and the subject of an intense legal battle. The high court will have to rule on a decision by an appeals court having reinstated restrictions on the use of the abortion pill, which could apply to all American states, but which is currently suspended.

The Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, is expected to study the case in the coming months to render a decision by the end of its annual session in June. Democratic President Joe Biden quickly made it known that he was “firmly” committed to defending access to abortion in the United States, in a statement from the White House.

If the decision of the court of appeal, taken in August in New Orleans, was confirmed, this would result in particular in a return to a maximum limit of seven weeks of pregnancy instead of ten to benefit from an abortion, a ban on sending abortion pills by post, and reinstatement of the obligation to prescribe exclusively by a doctor.

Access to mifepristone called into question

At issue is access to mifepristone, which, combined with another pill, has been used by 5.6 million women since it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000. In April, a judge federal government in Texas had suspended access to mifepristone.

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority following the appointments made under the presidency of Donald Trump, annulled its Roe vs. Wade ruling which had guaranteed the right of American women to abort since 1973, and returned to each state its freedom to legislate on the matter.

Since then, the country has been fractured between the twenty or so states that have banned or strictly restricted access to abortion, mainly located in the south and center of the country, and those on the coasts that have adopted new guarantees.

The abortion pill issue is the most important abortion case considered by the Supreme Court since its landmark decision in June 2022. More than half (53%) of abortions in the United States in 2020 were medical, according to the Guttmacher Institute, specialist on the subject. Abortions using mifepristone and misoprostol within the permitted time frame are very safe and very effective, all experts insist. In the United States, this method has been authorized by the American Medicines Agency (FDA) since 2000.