Supreme Court maintains access to abortion pill mifepristone

8 months ago 126
2 min ago

Supreme Court decision a "victory" for reproductive rights in the US, New York attorney general says

From CNN's Antoinette Radford

New York Attorney General Letitia James has called the Supreme Court ruling on the mifepristone pill, a "significant victory" for reproductive rights in the US.

James led a coalition of attorneys who urged the Supreme Court to reverse the Fifth Circuit decision that restricted how mifepristone was prescribed.

The Democrat said the Supreme Court's decision was an important step towards "ensuring that science is the guiding light for medical decisions and rulemaking."

"I am very proud of the work my office did, together with our coalition partners, to make sound, legal arguments to support the FDA and its commonsense, fact-based rules about how to access mifepristone," she said.

But, the Attorney General said she recognized the work was not done, as anti-choice legal challenges would continue to come up into the future.

"Abortion care is health care, and regardless of what happens on a national level, my office will always do everything in our power to protect and safeguard these rights for New Yorkers," James said.

9 min ago

Analysis: Legal dispute over abortion pill not over, CNN legal analyst says

From CNN's Maureen Chowdhury

An abortion rights advocate shows a box of mifepristone outside the Supreme Court on March 26.An abortion rights advocate shows a box of mifepristone outside the Supreme Court on March 26. Shuran Huang/The Washington Post/Getty Images

The legal dispute over mifepristone could come back in the future, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said on CNN, following the Supreme Court's decision to reject a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approach to regulating the abortion pill.

"This does not mean that the legal dispute over mifepristone is over. It means it's failed for now because this particular group of plaintiffs did not have legal standing," Honig explained.

He added that in the future, if there is someone who can establish proper legal standing they can try to revive this case, but that would take a long time and probably years to work its way through the federal courts back up to the Supreme Court.

And while the door is still open for future legal battles regarding the abortion pill, this decision will make it more difficult for other potential plaintiffs, Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law, noted.

"Today's decision doesn't cut off the possibility of future challenges to mifepristone, including by a handful of red states that were already allowed to intervene in the district court in this case," Vladeck said. "But the reasoning of the case should make those challenges less likely to succeed, because those plaintiffs (and others) will have a hard time showing that they were harmed by the FDA's actions," he said.

14 min ago

Here's how mifepristone works in an abortion

From CNN's Jen Christensen

A patient prepares to take mifepristone at Women's Reproductive Clinic of New Mexico in Santa Teresa, on January 13, 2023. A patient prepares to take mifepristone at Women's Reproductive Clinic of New Mexico in Santa Teresa, on January 13, 2023. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters/File

Mifepristone, which is also sold under the brand name Mifeprex or Korlym and sometimes known as RU 486, is one of two drugs most often used in the US in what is sometimes called a medication or medical abortion. The other is called misoprostol.

Mifepristone blocks a hormone called progesterone, which the body needs for a pregnancy to continue. The hormone helps maintain the inside of the uterus. When the hormone is absent, the uterus expels its contents.

After taking mifepristone, the patient waits 24 to 48 hours to take misoprostol. That helps empty the uterus through bleeding and muscle contractions. The drugs typically cause intense cramps and heavy bleeding for about three to five hours. A regular menstrual period will usually resume in a couple of weeks.

Within 14 days of taking the medicine, the patient takes a pregnancy test to determine whether the abortion is complete. If it isn’t, depending on the timing, they may need to take more medication, or in extremely rare cases they may need a surgical abortion. At a follow-up appointment, a medical professional may also check for infection.

The drugs can be taken immediately after someone learns that they’re pregnant, up to 10 weeks after the first day of the last menstrual period. The FDA approved mifepristone, coupled with misoprostol, for abortion in 2000.

27 min ago

Read the Supreme Court ruling rejecting a challenge to abortion pill mifepristone

From CNN staff

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approach to regulating the abortion pill mifepristone with a ruling that will continue to allow the pills to be mailed to patients without an in-person doctor’s visit.

Read the full ruling below:

31 min ago

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the abortion pill opinion for a unanimous court

From CNN's John Fritze

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approach to regulating the abortion pill mifepristone.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion for a unanimous court.

The court ruled that the doctors and anti-abortion groups that had challenged access to the drug did not have standing to sue. Though technical, the court’s reasoning is important because it might encourage other mifepristone challenges in the future.

“We recognize that many citizens, including the plaintiff doctors here, have sincere concerns about and objections to others using mifepristone and obtaining abortions,” Kavanaugh wrote.

“But citizens and doctors do not have standing to sue simply because others are allowed to engage in certain activities – at least without the plaintiffs demonstrating how they would be injured by the government’s alleged under-regulation of others.”
38 min ago

Supreme Court rejects challenge to FDA approach to abortion pill

From CNN’s Tierney Sneed and John Fritze

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approach to regulating the abortion pill mifepristone with a ruling that will continue to allow the pills to be mailed to patients without an in-person doctor’s visit.

The ruling is a significant setback for the anti-abortion movement in what was the first major Supreme Court case on reproductive rights since the court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.  

43 min ago

JUST IN: Supreme Court issues ruling on major abortion pill case

From CNN staff

The Supreme Court has issued a decision on whether the US Food and Drug Administration overstepped its authority by expanding access to the abortion pill mifepristone, such as by allowing the drug to be dispensed without in-person clinical visits.

Access to mifepristone has become particularly important after the court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago and many states banned the procedure in clinical settings.

CNN reporters are going through the opinion now and will provide the latest updates

Read Entire Article