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Supreme Court Will Hear Challenge to Abortion Pill Access
The justices announced that they would hear a case challenging a federal agency’s approval of the commonly used pill.
Reporting from Washington
The Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it would decide on the availability of a commonly used abortion pill, the first major case involving abortion on its docket since it overturned the constitutional right to the procedure more than a year ago.
The Biden administration had asked the justices to intervene after a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit favored curbing distribution of the drug, mifepristone, appearing skeptical of the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of the pill in recent years. In its ruling, the panel said that the pill would remain legal, but with significant restrictions on patients’ access, including prohibiting the medication from being sent by mail or prescribed by telemedicine.
The move sets up a high-stakes fight over the drug that could sharply curtail access to the medication, even in states where abortion remains legal. It could also have implications for the regulatory authority of the Food and Drug Administration, which approved the pill more than two decades ago.
The Supreme Court is now in the unusual position of ruling on abortion access even after its conservative majority declared that it would leave that question to elected officials. Until the court issues a decision, the F.D.A.’s approval of the drug remains in place, delaying the potential for abrupt limits on a medication that is used in more than half of all pregnancy terminations in the United States.
The Supreme Court did not set a date for argument but is expected to issue a decision by the end of its term, in late June. That means a ruling could arrive at the heart of the campaign season, during which abortion is expected to be a centerpiece of Democratic platforms.
Abortion rights groups welcomed the court’s decision to hear the case.
“The stakes are enormous in post-Roe America,” Nancy Northup, the president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal advocacy organization, said in a statement.
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