CNN Central News & Network–ITDC India Epress/ITDC News Bhopal: Supreme Court justices seemed concerned on Tuesday about whether abortion opponents have the right to sue over a medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the US last year, in the court’s first abortion case since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.
The justices’ comments in arguments over FDA actions that eased access to the drug, mifepristone, suggest that the court could leave the current rules in place that allow patients to receive the drug through the mail, without any need for an in-person visit with a doctor, and to take the medication to induce an abortion through 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, said the court should make clear that the anti-abortion doctors and organisations that challenged the FDA’s relaxation of restrictions on mifepristone don’t come within 100 miles of having the legal right, or standing, to sue.
Abortion opponents are asking the justices to ratify a ruling from a conservative federal appeals court that would limit access to mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions.
The high court’s return to the abortion thicket is taking place in a political and regulatory landscape that was reshaped by the abortion decision in 2022 that led many Republican-led states to ban or severely restrict abortion.
That ruling had immediate political consequences, and the outcome in the new case, expected by early summer, could affect races for Congress and the White House.
The scene outside the Supreme Court was lively Tuesday morning, with demonstrators occupying the streets surrounding the court and groups on both sides of the issue marching and chanting. The police blocked traffic surrounding the court as well.
The practical consequences of a ruling for abortion opponents would be dramatic, possibly halting the delivery of mifepristone through the mail and at large pharmacy chains, reducing the period in pregnancy when it can be used from 10 to seven weeks and ending increasingly popular telehealth visits at which the drug can be prescribed.