Biden Administration to Ask Supreme Court to Intervene in Abortion Pill Case
President Joe Biden’s administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the high-profile case involving a widely used abortion bill, officials said on April 13.
“We will be seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court to defend the FDA’s scientific judgment and protect Americans’ access to safe and effective reproductive care,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone, the abortion pill, was challenged in a lawsuit by groups including the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.
A district judge recently ordered the FDA to revoke the approval but a panel of judges U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday partially overturned that decision.
The appeals court ruling means mifepristone will remain available but only under requirements from 2000. The FDA loosened requirements in recent years, including allowing the dispensing of the drug by mail.
U.S. lawyers “have failed to carry their burden at this preliminary stage to show that FDA’s actions were not arbitrary and capricious,” the appeals court judges said, finding that the FDA failed to examine relevant data when it made significant changes in 2016.
The Department of Justice “strongly disagrees” with the decision, Garland said.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
