Biden administration urges Supreme Court to hear case on major abortion pill

Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022.

Allen G. Breed/AP

The Biden administration urged the Supreme Court on Friday to reconsider a lower-court ruling that would dramatically limit access to the key abortion pill, mifepristone.

In its petition obtained by NPR, the Justice Department argued that the abortion pill is many women’s “best method” to terminate early pregnancies.

“The loss of access to mifepristone would be damaging for women and healthcare providers around the Nation,” the Justice Department wrote.

It comes hours after the manufacturer of mifepristone, Danco Laboratories, filed a similar petition asking the court to reverse that decision.

Last month, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that mifepristone should not be prescribed past seven weeks of pregnancy or via telemedicine. For the time being, the pill has remained on the market in states where abortion is legal, as well as via telemedicine or mail while the Supreme Court decides whether to hear the case.

If the court agrees to take up the case in the fall, mifepristone will likely remain available under those conditions until the court reaches a decision — probably sometime in 2024, in the midst of a presidential election cycle.

But if the court allows the 5th Circuit’s decision to stand, access to the abortion pill could be dramatically reduced nationwide. Such a decision also would represent an unprecedented weakening of the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to approve medications.

“To the government’s knowledge, the decisions below mark…