April 21 (UPI) — The Supreme Court left in place the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone on Friday, allowing access to the drug while legal challenges continue.
The court rejected decisions by a Texas District Court judge and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and sided with the Biden administration to keep FDA rules that make the pill broadly available.
U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk sided with anti-abortion groups and suspended the FDA’s approval of the drug on April 7, threatening its availability nationwide.
The Fifth Circuit blocked a portion of Kacsmaryk’s ruling, allowing the FDA’s original approval to stand from some two decades ago but not the agency’s expansion of its use in the following years.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday gave the full court until midnight Friday to make a decision.
Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the decision on Friday. Alito said his decision did not mean he was criticizing the FDA’s past decision.
“I did not agree with these criticisms at the time, but if they were warranted in the cases in which they were made, they are emphatically true here,” Alito wrote.
In a statement on Friday after the decision, President Joe Biden said he supported the ruling and would continue to support the FDA’s independent process and ruling.
“The stakes could not be higher for women across America. I will continue to fight politically-driven attacks on women’s health,” Biden said. “But let’s be clear — the American people must continue to use their vote as their voice, and elect a Congress who will pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade.”
Vice President Kamala Harris said more FDA rulings could be at stake if the lower court’s decision is upheld.
“Americans need to look no further than their medicine cabinet to see how many FDA-approved medications are at risk if lower court decisions disregarding the FDA’s scientific judgment are allowed to stand,” Harris said.
The Supreme Court decision comes less than a year after its newly formed conservative 6-3 majority overturned the federal right to an abortion in Roe vs. Wade. The decision wiped out nearly 50 years of legal precedent while allowing each state to set its own rules over abortion.
Mifepristone has been widely used for more than two decades to terminate early pregnancies and treat complications caused by miscarriages.
Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, ruled that the FDA had rushed the approval of the abortion drug when it came on the market during the Clinton administration.
In response to his ruling, states such as California, New York and Massachusetts have stocked up on abortion medication while the legal challenges move forward.
Kacsmaryk’s decision prompted the Biden administration to approach the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. While keeping it available, the appeals court eliminated access to the drug after the seventh week of pregnancy and curtailed mail deliveries and the ability of non-physicians to administer the drug.
The high court’s stay will remain in place until the Fifth Circuit rules on the merits of the case and the Supreme Court decides whether or not to hear the dispute.
Also hanging in the balance is an injunction issued last Thursday by U.S. District Judge Thomas G. Rice of Washington state that protected access to mifepristone there, 16 other states and the District of Columbia.
The states covered under Rice’s order are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania.
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