The Supreme Court has kept restrictions on the commonly used abortion pill mifepristone from taking effect at least through Friday, extending a previous temporary pause it placed on restrictions going into effect last week. Wednesday’s order came from Justice Samuel Alito, who issued the previous pause last week.
The Justice Department warned in a legal filing Tuesday ahead of the Supreme Court’s order that allowing the restrictions to go forward “would scramble the regulatory regime governing” mifepristone, which has been used by more than 5 million women since the FDA approved the drug in 2000.
The case was prompted by unprecedented lower court rulings from Donald Trump-appointed judges. First was District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, followed by a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel led by Trump judges. In a dubiously reasoned April 7 ruling, Kacsmaryk ordered the suspension of the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. He paused the effective date of his order for a week while the Justice Department and brand name mifepristone manufacturer Danco Laboratories appealed. The 5th Circuit panel issued its own dubious ruling that partially blocked Kacsmaryk’s order, rejecting his suspension of FDA approval but condoning some of his restrictions such as mail access to the drug. That prompted the DOJ’s and Danco’s further appeals to the Supreme Court, attempting to block the narrowed order from taking effect.
They were successful in blocking that narrowed order from taking effect, at least for a few days while litigation continued, when Alito on April 14 granted a temporary administrative stay, lasting through Wednesday night. (Alito is the justice assigned to handle emergency litigation from the 5th Circuit.)
Arguing for a further stay while litigation continues, the DOJ said in its Tuesday filing that, without a stay:
Every extant package of [brand name mifepristone made by Danco] Mifeprex would instantly become misbranded and could not be lawfully introduced…
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