The Supreme Court has decided to temporarily maintain access to the abortion pill, the most widely used method in the United States to terminate pregnancies. The decision for now puts a stop to attempts by a federal judge in Texas to remove mifepristone from the market, based on the notion that the drug was unsafe despite studies showing that serious complications are rare and that only 1% of women who use it are hospitalized.
In this way, the Supreme Court aligns itself with the emergency request of President Joe Biden, who requested a review of the Texan judge’s ruling a week ago to avoid restricting access to the pill even in States where abortion continues to be legal. This is the first case of this type that reaches the courts after the Supreme Court eliminated the right at the national level in June last year and left the decision in the hands of each State.
For the moment, the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, a panel of three magistrates that sided with the US Drug Agency (FDA, for its acronym in English) by suspending the most radical aspects of the decision by Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, an anti-abortionist nominated for the post by former President Donald Trump.
They left standing, however, certain requirements such as the need for a prior appointment with a doctor, reducing the availability of the pills from the first 10 weeks of pregnancy to seven weeks, and prohibiting their distribution by mail.
At stake is the possible restriction of the abortion pill even in the most progressive regions of the country, as part of a conservative scourge that has been gaining ground in much of the country after the repeal by the Supreme Court of Roe Vs Wade in June 2022, the case that protected the right to abortion at the federal level since 1973.
According to the statement sent by the Government, the Texan judge “overturned an FDA scientific ruling that has been upheld through five administrations and annulled the approval of a drug that has been used safely by millions of Americans for more than two decades”, against the interests of a health system “that depends on the availability of mifepristone as an alternative to surgical abortion for women who choose to legally terminate their early pregnancies.
For abortion rights groups, the decision is a temporary “relief,” “but we’re not out of the woods yet,” said Nancy Northup, director of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights. She added that the Texas magistrate’s ruling blocking access to mifepristone had caused “chaos, confusion and panic.”
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