The Supreme Court of the United States on Thursday inflicted a setback on the conservatives most opposed to the right to abortion, by maintaining access to the abortion pill, with President Joe Biden nevertheless calling for people not to let their guard down.
In their unanimous judgment, the nine judges of the court with a conservative majority deny the “interest in acting”, a condition for taking legal action, of the plaintiffs – associations of doctors or practitioners hostile to voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG). who do not prescribe or use the pill mifepristone, used in the majority of abortions in the country. They therefore annul the appeal decision, which they had suspended anyway.
An appeals court, made up of ultraconservative judges, reinstated in 2023 several of the restrictions on access to mifepristone, a pill used for medical abortions, lifted by the American Medicines Agency (FDA) since 2016.
“Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that relaxing the FDA rules would likely actually harm them,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his decision on behalf of the Supreme Court.
“For this reason, the federal courts are not the appropriate avenue to address plaintiffs’ concerns about the FDA’s actions,” he adds, noting that they can refer them to the executive or legislative branch.
Democratic President Joe Biden, who made protecting the right to abortion a focus of his campaign for the November election against his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, took note of the decision but stressed that “the fight continues “.
“This decision does not change the fact that millions of Americans today live under cruel abortion bans because of Donald Trump,” added his vice-president Kamala Harris. “Nor the threats on medical abortions,” she added.
By its historic judgment of June 2022 annulling the federal guarantee of the right to abortion, the court with a conservative majority gave states full latitude to legislate in this area. Since then, around twenty have banned abortion (voluntary prohibition of pregnancy), whether carried out by medication or surgery, or have strictly regulated it.
Donald Trump prides himself on having, through his appointments of three conservative judges to the Supreme Court, enabled the reversal of jurisprudence of June 2022.
” Relieved “
The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research center whose studies are authoritative, said it was “relieved” by the Supreme Court’s ruling on mifepristone, “the only reasonable decision” possible, but deplored that this complaint “in bad faith and without factual or scientific basis” reached the highest court in the country.
“Even after the failure of this unfounded appeal, we must remain vigilant. The anti-abortion movement relentlessly pursues its goal of banning abortion nationwide,” Destiny Lopez, co-president of the Guttmacher Institute, added in a statement.
The president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, Nancy Northup, welcomed the decision, but also said that “this baseless case should never have gotten this far.”
“Unfortunately the attacks against abortion pills will not stop there,” she warned, in a press release emphasizing that the anti-abortion movement was “ready to do anything to block access to them”.
The conservative Christian organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represented the plaintiffs, said it was “disappointed that the Court did not rule on the merits of the FDA’s illegitimate actions,” but reaffirmed that the relief from rules decided by the agency endanger women’s health.
Citing potential risks that were ruled out by scientific consensus, the appeal decision, if confirmed, would have reduced the limit of ten weeks of pregnancy to seven, prohibited the sending of tablets by post and made the delivery of the tablets compulsory again. prescription exclusively by a doctor.
Nearly two-thirds of abortions (63%) in the United States in 2023 were performed by medication, the Guttmacher Institute indicated in March.
