The US Supreme Court is offering temporary respite to abortion rights advocates. She has, in fact, decided to maintain for the moment access to an abortion pill used for more than half of abortions in the country, suspending restrictions decided by lower courts.
The federal government had seized the high court urgently to have these judgments suspended. Only two conservative judges of the Court, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, expressed their disagreement on Friday with the decision taken by the majority of the nine judges.
The Supreme Court’s decision means in particular that American women will be able to continue to receive mifepristone, the name of the abortion pill, by post in states where abortion remains legal. This is the Court’s most significant intervention on the issue of abortion since it canceled the constitutional guarantee to abortion in June 2022.
But the legal battle around the abortion pill will continue, unleashing strong passions.
Avoiding open rejoicing at this stage victory, Democratic President Joe Biden immediately reacted to an announcement blocking for the moment measures “that would have undermined the medical judgment of the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and endangered women’s health”.
Family planning organization Planned Parenthood said this was ‘good news’, but ’the facts remain the same: access to mifepristone should never have been threatened in the first place’ .
This decision “does not erase the chaos, confusion and fear that this case sought to create,” said Elisa Wells, founder of the Plan C information network on abortion pills. “And while mifepristone may remain on the market for now, access to abortion is still severely and unfairly restricted in many states,” she added in a statement.
One of the conservative and anti-abortion groups behind the case, Alliance Defending Freedom, instead said the FDA must “account for the damage it has caused.” “Our case, which seeks to put women’s health before politics, continues in lower courts,” he wrote.
A hearing is scheduled in an appeals court in New Orleans on May 17.
More than five million American women have taken mifepristone since it was approved by the FDA more than 20 years ago.
The Court could, at its option, decide to suspend the decisions of the lower courts, uphold them, take up the case or, on the contrary, refuse to get involved.
The abortion pill is already no longer officially available in some fifteen American states that have recently banned abortion, even if roundabout routes have been developed. The impact of restrictions or a ban on this pill would therefore primarily concern states where abortion remains legal.