Supreme Court pushed abortion to states. A year later, it’s back – By Henry Gass (CS Monitor) / Dec 14, 2023
The U.S. Supreme Court this week agreed to hear an abortion case for the first time since overturning a constitutional right to abortion last year.
The case, which concerns the federal approval of the widely prescribed pill mifepristone, comes at a time when abortion access is being fiercely litigated across the United States. Voters in states such as Kansas, Michigan, and Ohio have voted to preserve access, while state courts in places like Texas, where near-total bans have been implemented, remain loath to approve medical exceptions. The drug is used in more than half of all abortions, and a ban would complicate access for women in states where the procedure remains legal.
A decision in the case is expected next summer, just months before a presidential election where abortion is expected to be a major issue for voters.
Mifepristone has been publicly available since 2000, when it was first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The agency has made the drug more accessible since then, issuing new regulations in 2016 and 2021. A coalition of anti-abortion groups and doctors filed a lawsuit in Texas earlier this year, seeking to pull the medication off the shelves. The approval processes for mifepristone were flawed, they argue, and the drug is too dangerous to be kept on the market.
