Supreme Court to Take Up Case on Abortion Pill
The Supreme Court announced today that it will take up the FDA appeal of FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine . The Fifth Circuit court issued a ruling reinstating restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone, with the Supreme Court in April issuing a stay maintaining the FDA approval during legal proceedings .
In March 2016 the FDA lifted restrictions on mifepristone under the 2000 FDA approval , extending the restriction from the first seven weeks to the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. In 2021, the FDA allowed a generic version of the pill to be mail-ordered, and removed the requirement that a doctor needed to be present to dispense the pill.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit in November 2022 challenging the FDA approval of mifepristone in 2000 under which the FDA characterized pregnancy as an illness. ADF Senior Counsel Julie Marie Blake said in a press release that mifepristone is dangerous to mothers , and does not provide a therapeutic benefit: “Pregnancy is not an illness, and chemical abortion drugs don’t provide a therapeutic benefit — they end a baby’s life and they pose serious and life-threatening complications to the mother.”
The ADF also said the mail-order availability of the drug is a health risk to women: “This decision puts girls and women at additional risk from chemical abortion drugs since mail-order, at-home abortions skip necessary medical examinations to ensure that girls and women do not have conditions that could lead to fatal outcomes.
