DOJ and Mifepristone maker ask Supreme Court to make ultimate decision on abortion drug in 2024

CNN — The Supreme Court is once again being asked to make a major ruling on abortion in an election year. The Department of Justice and a manufacturer of the widely used abortion drug mifepristone asked the Supreme Court on Friday to reverse a lower court ruling that, if allowed to go into effect, would restrict access to the drug. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court late Friday night in legal briefs that “more than half of American women who choose to terminate their pregnancies rely on mifepristone to do so” and that “study after study has shown that when mifepristone is taken in accordance with its approved conditions of use, serious adverse events are exceedingly rare.” Prelogar said that if the lower court decision is allowed to take effect it would “up-end the regulatory regime for mifepristone, with damaging consequences for women seeking lawful abortions and a healthcare system that relies on the availability of the drug under the current conditions of use.” She said the “unprecedented decision” would also “threaten to severely disrupt the pharmaceutical industry and prevent FDA from fulfilling its statutory responsibilities according to its scientific judgment.” Jessica L. Ellsworth, a lawyer for Danco laboratories, a manufacturer of the drug and an intervenor in the case told the justices in court papers that “for the women and teenage girls, health care providers and States that depend on FDA’s actions to ensure safe and effective reproductive health care is available, this case matters tremendously.” She said the court should take up the dispute because it “affects the availability of a drug with lawful uses in States across the country” and “raises questions about whether a single federal court can limit abortion access in the States that protect it.” A decision by the conservative 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals last month “destabilizes” the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries “by questioning when scientific studies – accepted by FDA – are sufficient to support conditions of use,” Ellsworth added. In a preliminary ruling, the federal appeals court scaled back on the district court ruling but said the drug could be restricted while the appeal process played out. In concluding that FDA’s moves to relax the pills’ regulations should be reversed, the court wrote, “the public interest is disserved by a drug that does not afford adequate protections to its users.” “To be clear, the evidence does not show that mifepristone is unsafe in all applications,” the appeals court said.