WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The Supreme Court will decide whether women will face restrictions in getting a drug used in the most common method of abortion in the United States, amid a lawsuit.
The justices are expected to issue an order on Wednesday in a case from Texas in which abortion opponents are seeking to roll back Food and Drug Administration approval of the drug, mifepristone.
The abortion opponents filed suit in November. It quickly reached the Supreme Court after a federal judge issued a ruling on April 7 that would revoke FDA approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions.
Less than a week later, a federal appeals court modified the ruling so that mifepristone would remain available while the case continues, but with limits. The appeals court said that the drug can’t be mailed or dispensed as a generic and that patients who seek it need to make three in-person visits with a doctor, among other things.
The Supreme Court’s decision will have a major impact on access to abortion pills for women living in many states.
The generic version of mifepristone makes up two-thirds of the supply in the United States, its manufacturer, Las Vegas-based GenBioPro Inc., wrote in a court filing that underscored the perils of allowing the restrictions to be put into effect.
The court also said the drug should only be approved through seven weeks of pregnancy for now, even though the FDA since 2016 has endorsed its use through 10 weeks of pregnancy.
A group of anti-abortion doctors called for the restrictions to remain in place.
“The only effect of the lower court’s order is to restore a modicum of safety for the women and girls who use the drug, including supervision and oversight by a physician,” the group said in a brief filed Tuesday to the Supreme Court.
“The stakes of this could not be higher. It could not be higher and we’re going to remain focused on prevailing in the courts so that women can access the care they need without government interference,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary.
The legal fight over abortion comes less than a year after conservative justices reversed Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.
It also comes as a federal judge in Washington has ordered the FDA to preserve access to mifepristone under the current rules in 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia that filed a separate lawsuit.
The judge said the FDA cannot roll back access to abortion pills in these areas despite that appeals court ruling restricting access.
The Biden administration has said the rulings conflict and create an untenable situation for the FDA.
In an order issued last Friday by Justice Samuel Alito, the court put the restrictions on hold through Wednesday to give the court time to consider the emergency appeal. It’s set to expire at midnight, meaning the court will likely act before then; however, it could extend the deadline or fail to act.
If the justices aren’t inclined to block the ruling from taking effect for now, the Democratic administration and Danco have a fallback argument, asking the court to take up the challenge to mifepristone, hear arguments and decide the case by early summer.
The court only rarely takes such a step before at least one appeals court has thoroughly examined the legal issues involved.
Mifepristone has been available for use in medication abortions in the United States since the FDA granted approval in 2000. Since then, more than 5 million women have used it, along with another drug, misoprostol, to induce abortions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
