All immediate challenges to the status of abortifacient mifepristone on the US market are on ice for the near future after the Supreme Court on Apr. 21 — without considering the merits of the case — approved a Justice Department request to put temporarily suspend recent rulings by a federal district court and an appeals court.
All changes to the US use of abortifacient mifepristone are now on hold – for three more days – pending a review by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito of two complex and differing lower court decision on lawsuits brought by anti-abortion groups.
Conflicting decisions by federal courts in Texas and Washington on separate lawsuits involving mifepristone, one of the two drugs most widely used in medication-induced abortions, dominated US news over the Easter weekend. One of the rulings is thought likely to be challenged all the way to the Supreme Court.
