U.S. abortion providers relieved but wary as Supreme Court preserves
pill access
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[April 22, 2023]
By Sharon Bernstein
(Reuters) - Abortion rights supporters expressed relief on Friday after
the U.S. Supreme Court preserved access to a widely used abortion pill
but warned of a long fight ahead as a legal challenge to the medication
continues.
The move by the court to halt new restrictions on the drug set by lower
courts was welcome news less than a year after its conservative majority
upended U.S. abortion access by overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v.
Wade decision that had legalized abortion nationwide.
Abortion providers had been stockpiling the abortion pill mifepristone
or planning to switch to a new regimen amid the battle over the legality
of a drug used in more than half of U.S. abortions.
Several providers said late on Friday they would pause plans to change
their medication abortion protocol in light of the Supreme Court's
order.
"It’s the right decision and a huge relief," said Joshua Sharfstein, a
public health professor at Johns Hopkins University and a former FDA
official. "The alternative would have not only undermined access to
reproductive health care, it would have thrown into disarray drug
regulation in the United States."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Apr/22/images/ads/current/goodman_sda_SHG_2023.png)
Friday's order will allow mifepristone to remain available with no new
restrictions while a court battle that could take months or longer plays
out.
The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the case, however,
meaning that mifepristone could still be restricted or banned at a later
stage in the case.
Abortion opponents said on Friday they were confident the court
ultimately would rule in favor of the pill's challengers, who contend
that the FDA illegally approved mifepristone and then removed critical
safeguards on what they call a dangerous drug.
"What the courts will see is a drug that does not cure a disease or
alleviate the symptoms of a disease," said Carol Tobias, president of
National Right to Life. "It was developed to take the life of an unborn
child and always has the potential to harm the mother."
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![](../images/042223PIX/news_l14.jpg)
Pro-abortion demonstrators gather at the
State Capitol to mark the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the
Supreme Court decision that had established a right to abortion
until it was overturned last year, in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
January 22, 2023. REUTERS/Eric Cox
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Apr/22/images/ads/current/graue_lda_preowned_040323.jpg)
Several states where abortion remains legal, including California,
Massachusetts and Washington, previously said they had begun
stockpiling abortion drugs in advance of possible restrictions. Some
Planned Parenthood clinics also said they had stockpiled at least a
year's worth of mifepristone.
California and other liberal states have promised to protect
pharmacists who continue to dispense mifepristone if it is
prescribed by doctors, even if FDA approval is withdrawn.
Mifepristone is taken with another drug called misoprostol to
perform medication abortion in the U.S.
Nicole Erwin, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Alliance
Advocates and Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, Hawaii,
Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky, said there was no longer an immediate
reason to switch to a one-drug regimen using only misoprostol.
"The court ruled that access to mifepristone should remain unchanged
while the case moves through lower courts, which means there is no
need to move away from the current two-pill regimen," she said.
But reproductive rights supporters said they remained concerned
about the future risks to access as the case returns to the lower
courts that had sought to restrict it.
"We're still planning to stockpile both mifepristone and misoprostol
just in case," said Josie Urbina, a physician specializing in
complex pregnancy at the University of California, San Francisco,
Center for Pregnancy Options.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; additional reporting by Gabriella
Borter; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Kim Coghill)
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