(SCOTUS BLOG) – The Supreme Court on Friday night granted a request from the Biden administration and a drug manufacturer to put on hold a ruling by a federal judge in Texas that suspended the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, part of a two-drug protocol used to end pregnancies in their early stages. The battle over medication abortions, which account for over half of all abortions performed in the United States each year, now returns to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which is scheduled to hear oral argument in the case next month. The order means that the drug will remain widely available while litigation continues.
Two justices indicated that they would have denied the requests. Justice Clarence Thomas did not elaborate on his reasoning, but Justice Samuel Alito penned a four-page dissent in which he questioned the need for the court to act now.
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The FDA originally approved mifepristone, which is also known as RU-486 or Mifeprex, in 2000. In the United States, the drug is used in conjunction with the drug misoprostol: Mifepristone blocks the effects of the hormones necessary to maintain a pregnancy, while misoprostol causes the uterus to contract, expelling the pregnancy.
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