Supreme Court Allows Abortion Pill To Stay On The Market

The U.S. Supreme Court has halted a Texas judge's restrictions on a widely used abortion pill, allowing it to remain on the market. 

On Friday, the high court granted emergency requests by the Justice Department and mifepristone manufacturer Danco Laboratories to put on hold an April 7 preliminary injunction that had been issued by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, reports Reuters. 

President Joe Biden welcomed the court's decision, saying, "As a result of the Supreme Court's stay, mifepristone remains available and approved for safe and effective use while we continue this fight in the courts."

Following the Supreme Court's verdict, the case now returns to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is set to hear arguments on May 17. Depending on the 5th Circuit's ruling, either side could still appeal the case back to the Supreme Court.

Abortion providers had been stockpiling mifepristone or planning to switch to a new regimen, amid a battle over access to the drug. After the court's order, some providers said they would pause their plans to change their medication abortion protocol.

Also Read: New York Governor, Attorney General Ask Three Pharmacy Operators' Commitment Over Abortion Drug Access.

"It's the right decision and a huge relief. The alternative would have undermined access to reproductive health care and thrown into disarray drug regulation in the United States," Joshua Sharfstein, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins University, told Reuters. 

States like California, Massachusetts, and Washington, where abortion remains legal, had also begun stockpiling abortion drugs before possible restrictions. California is one of several states that has promised to protect pharmacists who continue to dispense mifepristone if the drug is prescribed by doctors and even if FDA approval is withdrawn, according to Reuters. 

Earlier this month, Judge Kacsmaryk suspended the federal government's approval to allow mifepristone to be used to end pregnancies through 10 weeks. 

Four anti-abortion groups headed by the recently formed Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, along with four anti-abortion doctors, sued the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November, arguing that the FDA had followed an improper process to approve mifepristone in 2000. 

The petitioners also asserted that the agency did not adequately consider the drug's safety when used by girls under 18 to terminate a pregnancy.

Read Next: Abortion Pills - The Next Battleground In USA

Photo: Vince Young on flickr