Wednesday’s announcement means the issue of abortion will be brought before the court again more than a year after the justices ended the constitutional right to abortion.
The court granted a request from the Justice Department and one from Danco, the manufacturer of Mifeprex, the branded version of mifepristone.
The administration asked the justices to take up the case after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled in favor of imposing restrictions on patients’ access to the drug.
The lower court in August said mifepristone — both Mifeprex and its generic counterpart — can stay on the market in states where abortion is legal, but changes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made since 2016 to ease access to the drug were not allowed because the agency did not follow proper procedure in enacting them. This includes allowing medication to be sent by mail or prescribed by telemedicine.
The decision could have major implications not just for access to mifepristone but also for the biopharma industry and FDA’s approval authority.
While the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade and has appeared hostile to abortion, an emergency ruling by the court in April means access to mifepristone is unchanged until there’s a decision, which could come in June 2024. That means a ruling could arrive at the heart of the campaign season.
Mifepristone is widely used across the U.S. to end a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks of gestation. It was first approved in 2000, and about half of all abortions nationwide are performed using mifepristone as the first of a two-pill regimen, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research and advocacy group. It is also used to help manage miscarriages.
But one of the other policies at stake is the 10-week window. Under the appeals court ruling, mifepristone would only be approved for use at up to 7 weeks gestation.
