The Supreme Court of the United States, which was to rule on Wednesday April 19 on the fate of the abortion pill in the country, has pushed back its long-awaited decision by two days, thus temporarily extending full access to the pill. Judge Samuel Alito said in a terse text that the high court’s suspension of a lower court’s decision on the pill was extended by forty-eight hours, i.e. until Friday, April 21, at “11:59 p.m.”.
“The Court should put an end to this dangerous and baseless case once and for all”immediately reacted the civil rights organization ACLU. “People in need of an abortion or treatment for a miscarriage should not sit there wondering if they will be able to access the care they need or if the Supreme Court is going to abruptly take that away from them.”she added.
Less than a year after overturning the constitutional protection of abortion, the high court, with a conservative majority, had been seized in emergency by the government of Joe Biden after contradictory court decisions. At stake, access throughout the territory to mifepristone. In combination with another drug, mifepristone is used for more than half of abortions in the United States. More than five million Americans have already taken it since its authorization by the American drug agency, the FDA, more than twenty years ago.
Withdrawal of marketing authorization
It all started when a federal judge in Texas known for his Christian faith and his ultra-conservative positions, appointed by Donald Trump, withdrew the marketing authorization for mifepristone on April 7 after it was seized by activists. against abortion. Despite the scientific consensus, he felt that it posed risks to women’s health.
An appeals court, seized by the federal government, then allowed the abortion pill to remain authorized, but by limiting the access facilities granted by the FDA over the years. His judgment amounted to prohibiting the mailing of mifepristone and returning to a use limited to seven weeks of pregnancy, instead of ten.
The federal government then rushed to the Supreme Court. The latter temporarily maintained access to the abortion pill on Friday, suspending the decision of the court of appeal in order to have more time to examine the file.
A federal judge sitting in the State of Washington, appointed by Barack Obama, had estimated in the wake of the decision of his colleague from Texas that mifepristone was “safe and effective” and had prohibited the FDA from withdrawing its approval in seventeen states and in the capital.
The first suspension decided by the Supreme Court was valid until Wednesday inclusive. On Tuesday, a coalition of anti-abortion doctors urged the temple of American law to leave the appeals court ruling in place.
A decision that “completely exceeds the limits”
The FDA and the pharmaceutical company Danco, which manufactures mifepristone, have “continuously puts politics ahead of women’s health”denounced these associations of gynecologists and pediatricians campaigning against abortion.
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“Without a suspensive decision, mifepristone will cause even more physical complications, emotional trauma and even death in women”argued these doctors, assuring that it would also harm “to the plaintiffs by forcing them to perform à la carte abortions violating their conscience”.
US President Joe Biden had ruled that the judge’s decision in Texas “exceeds[ait] completely the terminals ». The abortion pill is no longer officially available in some fifteen American states that have recently banned abortion, where roundabout ways to use it have developed. The impact of restrictions or a ban on this pill would therefore primarily concern states where abortion remains legal, for many Democrats.