Biden DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Toss Abortion Pill Restrictions

The Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s ruling that reversed regulations that made abortion pill mifepristone easier to obtain.

The case, to be heard on March 26, is the Supreme Court’s most important abortion-related case since its decision in June 2022 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) and found that there was no right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution. The ruling returned the regulation of abortion to the states.

A medication abortion generally involves the use of mifepristone, which blocks the hormone progesterone, and misoprostol, which induces contractions. Mifepristone is also known as mifeprex and RU-486. Misoprostol, which is widely available because it has many medical uses, isn’t an issue in the current litigation.

The court’s decision in the exhaustively litigated case could affect the availability of Mifepristone.

In 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changed the drug’s official label and extended the cutoff for its use from 49 days of gestation to 70 days. At the same time, the agency allowed the drug to be prescribed with only one in-person visit and halted the requirement that prescribers report nonfatal adverse events related to the drug.

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