Washington procrastinates. The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily suspended a lower court’s ruling allowing access to the abortion pill, a popular method of abortion in the United States, to be maintained for the time being.
This suspension is valid until Wednesday before midnight, in order to allow the parties to present their arguments, said the Supreme Court in its decision.
The temple of American law had been urgently seized by the Biden government, which asked it to act before restrictions on access to this pill, ordered by an appeals court, took effect on Friday night in SATURDAY.
Last week, a federal judge in Texas, seized by anti-abortion activists, withdrew marketing authorization for mifepristone, one of two pills used for medical abortion. He had provided for a one-week delay before his decision would apply.
Seized by the federal government, the appeals court had partially invalidated the judge’s decision, allowing the abortion pill to remain authorized for the time being – but he had reversed the access facilities granted by the American Medicines Agency (FDA) over the years, since its authorization in 2000.
His judgment thus amounted in particular to prohibiting the sending of mifepristone by post, and to returning to a use limited to seven weeks of pregnancy, instead of ten. These restrictions were to apply at 1 a.m. Saturday, but are now suspended until Wednesday. This legal battle is the latest twist in the assault on abortion rights in the United States.