US Supreme Court restores abortion pill access for now

Abortion pills are the most common method of terminating pregnancies in the US. US Supreme Court restores access to abortion pill mifepristone for now Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. In this photo illustration, packages of Mifepristone tablets are displayed at a family planning clinic on April 13, 2023 in Rockville, Maryland US Supreme Court restores abortion pill access for now The Supreme Court has ruled that the abortion pill mifepristone can continue to be accessed by mail. Two manufacturers that make the pill had asked the Supreme Court to intervene after a lower court placed significant restrictions on access to mifepristone as part of an ongoing lawsuit. Thursday's order from the high court blocks those limitations while litigation plays out. Access to the pill will likely remain until that lawsuit is decided, which could happen next year. Abortion pills are the most common method of terminating pregnancies in the US - especially in states where abortion is banned. Mifepristone and Misoprostol pills are pictured Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018, in Skokie, Illinois. US Supreme Court asked to restore abortion pill access The Supreme Court's most conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, dissented. In 2023, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed doctors to send pills without seeing patients in person, giving women the ability to receive the pills by mail or at a pharmacy through telemedicine. The state of Louisiana sued the FDA last October in an effort to prevent delivery of mifepristone. Louisiana argued that nationwide postage of the drug interfered with the state's own abortion ban. Earlier this month, in response to the lawsuit, an appeals court temporarily reinstated a requirement that abortion pills be obtained in person. "Every abortion facilitated by FDA's action cancels Louisiana's ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that 'every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person," the appeals court wrote in that order. Two mifepristone manufacturers then asked the Supreme Court to weigh in while they prepared to bring an emergency case before the court. The ruling, which is called a stay, issued on Thursday was part of the court's emergency docket and came with no reasoning attached. It will remain in place until the justices decide whether to hear the manufacturers' case. Thomas wrote in his dissent that since sending mifepristone by mail is illegal in Louisiana, the drug manufacturers are not entitled to block a court order "based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise." Mifepristone is the first of a two-pill regimen recommended by the FDA to end a pregnancy. It is widely available in states where abortion is legal. The drugs' availability was expanded in April 2021, when the FDA said it would lift the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic. The following year, the US Supreme Court overturned its decades old Roe v Wade decision that gave women the constitutional right to an abortion. The ruling paved the way for individual states to ban the procedure. In 2023, the FDA decided to permanently allow mifepristone to be sent by mail. And the following year, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected an effort to restrict access to the drug. But the decision left the door open to other attempts to limit the availability of the drug. More than 20 US states have banned or restricted abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. A lower court has limited mail-order access to the abortion pill mifepristone, which the drug's maker says will cause "irreparable harm". Rose Docherty was arrested twice for protesting near a Glasgow abortion clinic in breach of new buffer zone laws. The killing of Charlie Kirk galvanised a transatlantic campaign against abortion. But will it succeed in shifting Britain's pro-choice consensus? There were plenty of choreographed ceremonies but no trade breakthroughs after the two-day visit. An industry body survey found hotels in World Cup host cities see the tournament as a "non-event". The reported visit to Havana came after the US renewed an offer of aid to ease the effects of its oil blockade. The passengers spent hours on a floating life raft after their 20-minute flight between two islands went down. The South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for the man accused of killing his wife and son in a case that fascinated the US.