The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it will hear oral arguments sometime next year on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled correctly when it loosened some restrictions on the abortion medication mifepristone.
The Biden administration asked the high court to step in last spring on the legal questions surrounding mifepristone. Two separate groups sued in two separate jurisdictions about the restrictions around mifepristone, one lawsuit stating that mifepristone had been singled out for excessive regulation and the other lawsuit claiming that the FDA erred in approving the drug in 2000. The judges issued orders in April, providing conflicting guidance. The judge in Washington state placed a stay on mifepristone in the 18 jurisdictions suing to maintain full access while a Texas judge ruled that the FDA should take mifepristone off the shelf and reevaluate how it approved the drug 23 years ago.
Because of a Supreme Court stay, mifepristone is available and remains legal in all states where abortion is still legal, including New Mexico.
The Biden administration appealed the Texas decision to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which did not agree in full with the lower court and said, instead, that the FDA should have to return to its 2016 regulations around the drug.
The FDA loosened some of its restrictions in 2016 and again in 2021, making mifepristone easier to obtain. Up until 2021, a patient seeking an abortion had to travel to an abortion clinic, sometimes hundreds of miles away, to obtain the one pill. The patient did not have to take the pill in the presence of a provider.
The court has not set the date yet for oral argument.
Whole Women’s Health, an abortion clinic in various states, including New Mexico, released a statement in response to the court’s announcement. It said that medication abortion accounts for more than half of all abortions in the U.S. and 98 percent of medication abortions rely on mifepristone as part of the two-step regime.
“Access to these pills is crucial to the provision of abortion care, especially in our post-Roe landscape, where abortion is currently banned in 14 states and severely restricted in others. At our clinics across the country, patients can receive medication abortions up to 11 weeks through both in-clinic and virtual care services,” the statement says.
