The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could deal a devastating blow to the pro-abortion movement.
NBC News reported that the court will take on a case concerning the drug mifepristone, which is used to induce abortions in the early stages of pregnancy.
The Supreme Court will be tasked with deciding whether to uphold a ruling by a lower court in August that the availability of the pill must be restricted.
The case was brought by the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom against the Food and Drug Administration over its decision to expand access to the drug, including by mail, despite questions about its safety.
“Every court so far has agreed that the FDA acted unlawfully in removing common-sense safeguards for women and authorizing dangerous mail-order abortions,” Erin Hawley, a lawyer for ADF, said in a statement. “We urge the Supreme Court to do the same.”
“The FDA has harmed the health of women and undermined the rule of law by illegally removing every meaningful safeguard from the chemical abortion drug regimen. Like any federal agency, the FDA must rationally explain its decisions,” Hawley continued.
“Yet its removal of common-sense safeguards — like a doctor’s visit before women are prescribed chemical abortion drugs — does not reflect scientific judgment but rather a politically driven decision to push a dangerous drug regimen.”
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre warned that the previous ruling “threatens to undermine the FDA’s scientific, independent judgment and would reimpose outdated restrictions on access to safe and effective medication abortion.”
“This Administration will continue to stand by FDA’s independent approval and regulation of mifepristone as safe and effective,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “No woman should be unable to access the health care that she needs. This should not happen in America, period.”
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The drugmaker Danco, which manufactures mifepristone, continues to affirm the “safety and effectiveness” of its pill.
“The FDA actions at issue were well supported by extensive safety and effectiveness data from clinical trials and decades worth of real-world experience in millions of patients,” the company said in a statement.
The legal challenge will be the most important abortion case heard by the Supreme Court since it overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, ending the federal mandate requiring legal abortion and returning the issue to the states.
In a separate decision in April, the court blocked a ruling invalidating the FDA’s approval of mifepristone altogether.
Oral arguments in the latest case are to begin early next year, with a decision expected by the end of June.