Biden to appeal abortion pill ruling to the Supreme Court

White House also slams a Florida bill that will ban abortion after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.

Mifepristone was approved by the FDA in 2000. Picture: AFP

The US Justice Department will go to the Supreme Court to appeal restrictions imposed on a widely used abortion pill in the latest round of a battle over reproductive rights.

The decision by President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday came just hours after a federal appeals court rejected moves to ban mifepristone outright, but imposed a series of measures restricting access to the pill.

As the Justice Department prepared an emergency filing with America’s highest court, the White House slammed a Florida bill that would ban abortion in the third-most populous state after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the bill passed on Thursday by the Republican-controlled legislature in Florida was “extreme and dangerous” and “flies in the face of fundamental freedoms”. More than a dozen US states have passed laws severely restricting abortion since the conservative-dominated Supreme Court last year overturned the Roe v Wade ruling that had enshrined the constitutional right to abortion for half a century.

Mifepristone, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000 and accounting for more than half the abortions in the US, has become the centrepiece of the country’s latest clash over women’s reproductive freedom.

Attorney-General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department will seek “emergency relief from the Supreme Court to defend the FDA’s scientific judgment and protect Americans’ access to safe and effective reproductive care”.

Speaking during Mr Biden’s visit to Dublin, Ms Jean-Pierre said “we believe that the law is on our side, and we will prevail”.

On Wednesday, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said mifepristone, also known as RU-486, should remain available pending a full hearing of the case, but limited access to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, down from 10. The appeals court also said in-person visits would be necessary to obtain the pill – a requirement lifted in recent years – and blocked the medication from being sent by mail.

The 2-1 ruling by the appeals court in New Orleans, Louisiana, came after Texas federal District Court judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, overturned the FDA’s two-decades-old approval of the drug last Friday.

The appeals court said anti-abortion opponents had waited too long to challenge the drug’s approval by the FDA but imposed restrictions on its use, a move denounced by groups seeking to maintain access to abortion.

“We are furious that yet another court would choose to jeopardise the health and futures of the millions of people who rely on mifepristone for abortion care,” said Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson.

Jennifer Dalven, director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said “unless the Supreme Court steps in, this decision will prevent many people from getting abortion care and force them to remain pregnant against their will”.

Anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America described the appeals court ruling by two judges appointed by Donald Trump as a “win”. “The court recognised that the abortion pill is dangerous and rolled back Biden’s reckless mail-order abortion scheme,” state policy director Katie Daniel said.

Mifepristone is one component of a two-drug regimen that can be used through the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. It has a long safety record, and the FDA estimates 5.6 million Americans have used it since it was approved.

Polls show a clear majority of Americans support access to safe abortion, even as conservative groups push to limit access, or ban it outright.

AFP