Biden Admin, Pharma Company Ask SCOTUS To Scrap Restrictions On Widely Used Abortion Pill

The Biden administration has petitioned for the Supreme Court to intervene against restrictions imposed on the chemical abortion drug mifepristone, claiming that limits on the drug are “damaging for women and healthcare providers around the Nation.”

In a legal filing on Friday, the Department of Justice said that the high court should not uphold limits placed on mifepristone that were set forth by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that would prohibit the distribution of the pills through the mail or prescribed via telemedicine. The limits placed on the drug cannot be implemented until the Supreme Court issues a ruling on the decision. 

“The effect of the lower court’s decisions would be to compel FDA to return to a pre-2016 regulatory regime that imposes restrictions on distribution that FDA has found to be unnecessary and unjustified,” the DOJ said in a cert petition. 

The DOJ said that mifepristone, used in up to half of all abortions, was “best method” to end the life of an unborn child early in development. 

Danco Laboratories, the manufacturer of a widely used abortion pill, also said in a Friday legal filing that the Supreme Court should throw out the Fifth Circuit’s limits on the drug

“For the women and teenage girls, health care providers, and States that depend on FDA’s actions to ensure safe and effective reproductive health care is available, this case matters tremendously,” wrote Jessica Ellsworth, a lawyer representing Danco. “And for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, permitting judicial second-guessing of FDA’s scientific evaluations of data will have a wildly destabilizing effect.”

The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom sued to stop the distribution and approval of the drug by the FDA. ADF lawyers have said that agency’s decision to approve mifepristone was political. 

“The FDA’s unprecedented and unlawful actions did not reflect scientific judgment but rather revealed politically driven decisions to push a dangerous drug regimen without regard to women’s health or the rule of law. This is a significant victory for the doctors and medical associations we represent and, more importantly, the health and safety of women,” ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley said after the Fifth Circuit upheld restrictions of the drug last month. 

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case in its coming fall session after previously putting a stay on a broader federal judge order to fully suspend approval for the pill.