US: Supreme Court ‘temporarily’ restores availability of common abortion pill

Washington [US], April 15 (ANI): The US Supreme Court on Friday issued a temporary stay on ensuring that a common abortion pill would remain widely available while the Supreme Court decides whether to grant a formal stay. The interim stay will expire at midnight on Wednesday.

In order to give the justices a little more time to think about the pertinent concerns, Justice Samuel Alito granted the government’s request for an emergency stay and stated the whole court will make a judgement by Wednesday, The New York Times reported. Notably, the Supreme Court put on hold a lower court’s decision to revoke the authorization of mifepristone, one of the drugs used in roughly half of all US abortions.

The organisations contesting the Food and Drug Administration’s clearance of the pill were required to submit their brief by Tuesday at noon, according to Judge Alito, the court official in charge of supervising the appeals court whose decision is in question, according to The New York Times.

The action was taken in response to an emergency application the Biden administration submitted Friday morning requesting the justices to get involved. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had recently permitted the mailing and distribution of mifepristone to patients between seven and ten weeks of pregnancy, but that appeals court nevertheless placed various restrictions on its use.

According to Al Jazeera, following the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v Wade last June, which ended the US Constitution’s protection of the right to an abortion, the anti-abortion rights organisations have turned their attention to the availability of abortion drugs like mifepristone. Since then, other states governed by Republicans have imposed extensive abortion restrictions.

Last Friday, a federal judge in Texas granted an order that would have momentarily halted the FDA’s approval of mifepristone while he reviewed legal arguments regarding the availability of the medication. However, the judge postponed his decision for seven days to enable the federal government to file an appeal.

A federal court in Washington state issued its ruling less than two hours later, saying the FDA must maintain access to abortion medications in more than a dozen states with Democratic governors. (ANI)