The Supreme Court’s decision to protect access to mifepristone, a drug used in medical abortions, while the appeals process plays out is a victory for the Biden administration and abortion rights activists.
The court’s Friday brief, unsigned order did not explain why it granted the request by the Biden administration and a manufacturer of the drug to intervene. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito publicly dissented.
The case is the most important abortion-related dispute to reach the high court since the justices overturned Roe v. Wade, triggering conservative states nationwide to either ban or severely restrict the procedure. How the dispute over medication abortion is ultimately resolved could make it more difficult for women to obtain an abortion, even in the states that still allow it.
At issue is the scope of the FDA’s authority to regulate mifepristone, a drug that the medical community has deemed safe and effective. Millions of women across the country have used mifepristone in the more than two decades that it has been on the market.
The next step in the litigation will be a hearing in front of a New Orleans-based federal appeals court on May 17.
