For now, Supreme Court preserves access to abortion pill

By Mark Sherman The Associated Press

2 years ago

FILE - A patient prepares to take the first of two combination pills, mifepristone, for a medic ... — FILE – A patient prepares to take the first of two combination pills, mifepristone, for a medication abortion during a visit to a clinic in Kansas City, Kan., on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022. The Supreme Court is facing a self-imposed Friday, April 21, 2023, night deadline to decide whether women’s access to a widely used abortion pill will stay unchanged until a legal challenge to its Food and Drug Administration approval is resolved. The justices are weighing arguments that allowing restrictions contained in lower-court rulings to take effect would severely disrupt the availability of the drug, mifepristone, which is used in the most common abortion method in the United States. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

The Supreme Court is seen, Friday, April 21, 2023, ahead of an abortion pill decision in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

FILE – Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022. The Supreme Court is facing a self-imposed Friday, April 21, 2023, night deadline to decide whether women’s access to a widely used abortion pill will stay unchanged until a legal challenge to its Food and Drug Administration approval is resolved. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed, File)

Staff with the group, Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, Kristin Turner, of San Francisco, left, Lauren Handy, of Washington, and Caroline Smith, of Washington, right, demonstrate against abortion pills outside of the Supreme Court, Friday, April 21, 2023, ahead of an abortion pill decision by the court in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Staff with the group, Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, Kristin Turner, of San Francisco, left, Lauren Handy, of Washington, and Caroline Smith, of Washington, right, demonstrate against abortion pills outside of the Supreme Court, Friday, April 21, 2023, ahead of an abortion pill announcement by the court in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday preserved women’s access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion, rejecting lower-court restrictions while a lawsuit continues.

The justices granted emergency requests from the Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, maker of the drug mifepristone. They are appealing a lower court ruling that would roll back Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone.

The drug has been approved for use in the U.S. since 2000 and more than 5 million people have used it. Mifepristone is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol, in more than half of all abortions in the U.S.