Future Of Abortion Pill Under Threat As Supreme Court Trial Opens
The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a case that challenges access mifepristone, one of two drugs used in a medication abortion. News outlets cover what’s at stake for the FDA and drug industry, how abortion could be further limited, and claims that distorted science is playing a role.
The Texas Tribune:
Supreme Court Considers Texas Ruling Revoking FDA Approval Of Abortion Drug
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that has the potential to upend access to mifepristone, a common abortion-inducing drug. This is the first major abortion case the high court has heard since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022. The case was first filed in Amarillo, where conservative federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk sided nearly a year ago with anti-abortion groups seeking to move mifepristone off the market. Subsequently, the Supreme Court froze any changes to the drug’s legal status until it had a chance to hear the case. (Klibanoff, 3/26)
NPR:
The Supreme Court Hears The Mifepristone Case Tuesday. Here’s What’s At Stake
Just months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, a newly-formed group called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine sued the Food and Drug Administration, challenging its approval of mifepristone, a medication used for abortion. On Tuesday, the same justices who undid constitutional protection for abortion will hear arguments in the next frontier of abortion restriction: tightening access across the country for a medication that’s used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions nationally. (Simmons-Duffin, 3/25)
The 19th:
How The Supreme Court Could Further Limit Abortion
In its first major abortion case since overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday over whether to restrict access to a drug called mifepristone, one of two medications commonly used to induce an abortion. The case, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vs Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, addresses a question ostensibly narrow in scope: whether the federal agency erred in its 2016 decision to expand the circumstances in which mifepristone can be used, expanding its approval from seven weeks of pregnancy to 10 and removing a requirement that it be dispensed in person. (Luthra, 3/25)
Reuters:
US Supreme Court Abortion Pill Fight Brings Claims Of Distorted Science
The abortion opponents who are seeking to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone point to three studies by Gynuity Health Projects, a New York-based women’s health research group, to back up their arguments that it is unsafe despite its regulatory approval decades ago. But the way the research has been prominently cited by the plaintiffs in their bid to limit how the pill is prescribed and distributed is bewildering to Dr. Beverly Winikoff, Gynuity’s president, given that the conclusions broadly support easier access to the medication. (Chung, 3/25)
Also —
KFF Health News:
At Stake In Mifepristone Case: Abortion, FDA’s Authority, And Return To 1873 Obscenity Law
Lawyers from the conservative Christian group that won the case to overturn Roe v. Wade are returning to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in pursuit of an urgent priority: shutting down access to abortion pills for women across the country. The case challenges the FDA’s regulation of mifepristone, a prescription-only drug approved in 2000 with a stellar safety record that is used in 63% of all U.S. abortions. (Varney, 3/25)
The New York Times:
Use Of Abortion Pills Has Risen Significantly Post Roe, Research Shows
A study, published on Monday in the medical journal JAMA, found that the number of abortions using pills obtained outside the formal health system soared in the six months after the national right to abortion was overturned. Another report, published last week by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, found that medication abortions now account for nearly two-thirds of all abortions provided by the country’s formal health system, which includes clinics and telemedicine abortion services. (Belluck, 3/25)
Axios:
Self-Managed Abortions Surged After Overturn Of Roe V. Wade, Study Shows
The number of women turning to medication abortion outside of the formal health care system surged in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, according to a new study. (Saric, 3/25)
In other reproductive health news —
AP:
Bill That Would Have Placed The Question Of Abortion Access Before Louisiana Voters Fails
A bill that ultimately would have let voters decide whether abortions should be legal in Louisiana, a state with a near-total ban, failed after a Republican-controlled committee rejected it Monday. The legislation proposed an amendment to Louisiana’s constitution that would enshrine reproductive rights for women, including allowing contraceptives such as birth control, access to abortions and infertility treatments. … However a GOP-controlled committee voted 10-2 to involuntarily defer the bill, effectively killing the measure. (Cline, 3/25)
The Hill:
Number Of Black Women Who Say They Are Scared Of Having Children Rises
Nearly two years after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, Black women are increasingly worried about the impact on pregnancy and birth. Nearly 40 percent of Black women of reproductive age said they feel less safe and think about the risk of death if they become pregnant in the new poll from In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda with PerryUndem, published Monday. Among people living in restrictive states, 1 in 3 said they have thought about the risk of being arrested due to something related to pregnancy. (Daniels, 3/25)
