By Mark Sherman -
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court faces a self-imposed deadline Friday night to decide whether women's access to a widely used abortion pill will remain unchanged or be restricted while a legal challenge to its approval by the Food Administration continues. and Drugs (FDA, for its acronym in English).
Judges are weighing arguments that allowing the restrictions contained in the lower court rulings to take effect would seriously affect the availability of the drug, mifepristone, used in the most common method of abortion in the United States.
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It has been repeatedly shown to be safe and effective, and has been used by more than 5 million women in the United States since FDA approval in 2000.
The Supreme Court had initially said it would decide by Wednesday whether the restrictions could take effect while the case ran its course.
On Wednesday, a one-sentence order signed by Judge Samuel Alito gave judges two additional days, without explanation.
The judges are scheduled to meet in a private conference on Friday, where they could discuss the matter.
The extra time could be part of an effort to craft an order that has broad support among judges.
Or one or more judges may be writing a separate opinion and have asked for a couple more days.
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The mifepristone challenge, brought by abortion critics, is the first abortion dispute to reach the nation's highest court since its conservative majority overturned Roe v.
Wade 10 months ago and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion.
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In his majority opinion, Alito said one of the reasons for repealing Roe was to take federal courts away from the abortion fight.
“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the abortion issue to the elected representatives of the people,” he wrote.
But even with their victory in the courts, opponents of abortion returned to the federal courts with a new target: medical abortions, which account for more than half of all abortions in the United States.
Women who want to terminate their pregnancy in the first 10 weeks without resorting to a more invasive surgical abortion can take mifepristone, along with misoprostol.
The FDA has eased the terms of use for mifepristone over the years, even allowing it to be mailed to states that allow access.
Opponents of abortion filed a lawsuit in Texas in November, claiming that the original FDA approval of mifepristone 23 years ago and subsequent changes were flawed.
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On April 7, US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a former President Donald Trump appointee, reversed the FDA's approval of mifepristone.
The judge gave the Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the maker of mifepristone, a week to appeal and try to keep his ruling on hold.
In response to a swift appeal, two other Trump-appointed judges on the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit said the original FDA approval would stand for now.
But Justices Andrew Oldham and Kurt Englehardt said most of the rest of Kacsmaryk's ruling could take effect as the case winds its way through the federal courts.
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Their ruling would effectively nullify changes made by the FDA starting in 2016, including extending from seven to 10 weeks of pregnancy when mifepristone can be used safely.
The court also said the drug cannot be mailed or dispensed as a generic and that patients seeking it need to make three in-person visits with a doctor.
Women could also be required to take a higher dose of the drug than is required by the FDA.