Abortion pill makers ask Supreme Court to lift ban

Abortion rights supporters protest in front of Supreme Court

(Image credit: Drew Angerer / AFP via Getty Images)

What happened

Two drugmakers on Saturday asked the Supreme Court to pause a federal appellate court’s decision to ban mail-order access to the abortion medication mifepristone nationwide. A panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the day before that women seeking mifepristone had to get the drug in person from a doctor.

The Fifth Circuit agreed that Louisiana was “irreparably harmed without a stay,” because out-of-state mifepristone shipments circumvent the state’s near-total ban on abortions. Mifepristone makers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro asked the Supreme Court to step in, arguing that overriding an FDA decision on a drug long proved safe and effective was unprecedented and upended the established U.S. drug-approval framework.

The ruling “puts the Trump administration in a politically difficult spot, especially ahead of the midterms,” The New York Times said. The White House “does not want to take a high-profile anti-abortion action” that “might antagonize some voters who support abortion rights.” But antiabortion groups are already furious with President Donald Trump over the continued “ubiquity of abortion pills,” The Wall Street Journal said, and they plan to campaign heavily for national abortion bans.

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