Supreme Court allows government to enforce abortion pill rule

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted a national injunction that barred the Trump administration from enforcing a rule to regulate a pill commonly used in medical abortions, so the rule can now be enforced.

Since 2000, the Food and Drug Administration has stated that Mifeprex, a drug used during the first ten weeks of pregnancy, should be given to a patient by a healthcare professional in a clinic, hospital, or doctor’s office. The patient must sign a form acknowledging that she has been informed of the potential risks of the drug. The patient can take the pill at any time after receiving it and does not have to swallow it in the presence of the healthcare professional.

A group of doctors, led by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have taken legal action to get restrictions eased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Doctors’ offices and clinics have either closed or restricted appointments, they said, and forcing pregnant women to attend in person puts them at increased risk of infection.

Maryland District Court Judge Theodore Chuang agreed, ruling in July that maintaining the FDA rule in the pandemic “would place a substantial obstacle in the way of women seeking medical abortions that could delay or prevent medical abortion and therefore require a more invasive intervention. procedure. ”Instead, he said, the pills could be mailed.

His order ended the application of the FDA rule nationwide, but the Supreme Court has now suspended that order, allowing the rule to be enforced.

Chief Justice John Roberts said it was not a question of whether the rule placed an undue burden on a woman’s right to seek abortion. Instead, he said it was the authority of a lower court to block rules during the pandemic. “Courts owe a great deal of deference to politically responsible branches” for the purpose of assessing public health.

Writing for herself and for Judge Elena Kagan, Judge Sonia Sotomayor said the majority of women who seek abortion care during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy depend on the drug in question.

“FDA policy places an unnecessary, unjustifiable, irrational and undue burden on a woman seeking an abortion during the current pandemic,” Sotomayor wrote.

Judge Stephen Breyer also said he would have left control over the application of the rule.