The US Supreme Court denied a request to limit the use of a pill that is frequently used to end pregnancies on Thursday, but President Joe Biden issued a warning that the ruling will not end the divisive electoral battle over abortion.
In a majority ruling, the highest court determined that the doctors and anti-abortion organizations contesting the drug mifepristone did not have the legal right to file the lawsuit.
The Biden administration requested the court to retain the medicine’s availability, as abortion rights are a major issue in the November election. The drug was authorized by the Food and medicine Administration (FDA) in 2000.
Donald Trump, Biden’s likely rival for the presidency, is the head of a Republican Party that mostly supports abortion access limits.
The conservative-dominated Supreme Court’s ruling, which does not exclude future challenges to mifepristone in other forums, was met with cautious reactions from the president and anti-abortion organizations.
Mifepristone is dangerous, and pro-life doctors are being compelled to violate their consciences by intervening on behalf of patients who have difficulties after using it, according to proponents of abortion rights who want to restrict access to the medication.
Last year, a conservative Texas district court judge chosen by Trump rendered a decision that would have outlawed mifepristone.
Due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for contesting the FDA’s clearance, an appeals court reversed the complete prohibition while imposing restrictions on the drug’s availability.
The appeals court banned postal delivery of mifepristone, lowered its usage window from 10 weeks to seven weeks of pregnancy, and mandated that a doctor prescribe and administer the medication.
These limitations are lifted by the Supreme Court’s decision.
The Guttmacher Institute reports that medication abortions made up 63% of all abortions performed in the nation in 2020, an increase from 53% in the previous year.
Since the Supreme Court reversed the historic Roe v. Wade decision in June 2022, which had established the constitutional right to an abortion for fifty years, almost twenty states have outlawed or severely limited access to abortion.
According to polls, the majority of Americans still favor safe abortion access, despite efforts by conservative organizations to restrict or outlaw the practice.
A Democrat-sponsored bill that would have protected in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures was vetoed by Senate Republicans on Thursday, marking another development in the fight for reproductive rights.
