2023-08-16 22:50:31
Updated17. August 2023, 00:50
Abortion pill in the United States: Appeals court orders access restrictions
Wednesday’s ruling will have no practical consequences until the US Supreme Court rules one way or the other.
AFP
A US appeals court ruled on Wednesday in favor of reinstating restrictions on access to the abortion pill, a judgment that will have no practical effect until the highest court in the country rules on this subject which divides the UNITED STATES.
This decision, if confirmed by the Supreme Court, would result in particular in a return to a limit of seven weeks of pregnancy instead of ten, a ban on the sending of the abortion pill by post, and the restoration of the obligation of prescription exclusively by a doctor.
It follows a hearing held in May before the Court of Appeals located in New Orleans (southeast) on access to mifepristone (RU 486) which, combined with another stamp, was used by 5 .6 million women since its approval by the American Medicines Agency (FDA) in 2000. It concerns the suspension in April, by a federal trial court, of the marketing authorization for mifepristone, evoking – despite the scientific consensus – risks for women’s health.
No practical consequences
The Democratic administration had appealed urgently and the Supreme Court had restored the approval of this pill, while the procedure continued. The Court of Appeal breaks the suspension of the authorization of the pill in 2000 and the generic in 2019 but grants part of the requests of the plaintiffs, associations of doctors or practitioners hostile to abortion, by confirming the suspension access restrictions decided by the FDA since 2016.
“Mifeprex will remain available under pre-2016 restrictions,” as will generic mifepristone, say the judges, while emphasizing that their decision will have no practical consequences until the Supreme Court rules in a one way or the other.
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority following appointments made under President Donald Trump, overturned its Roe v. Wade which guaranteed since 1973 the right of American women to have an abortion, and gave back to each State its freedom to legislate in the matter. Since then, the country has been divided between the twenty states that have banned or strictly restricted access to abortion, mainly located in the south and center of the country, and those on the coasts that have adopted new guarantees.
“Panic” and “confusion”
“This decision, if it goes into effect, might jeopardize the entire FDA drug approval system and cause panic and confusion among patients,” the NGO Center for Reproductive Rights said in a statement. Center for Reproductive Rights), noting the existence of “scientific consensus on the safety and efficacy” of mifepristone.
The anti-abortion organization Susan B. Anthony on the contrary welcomed this judgment of the Court of Appeal. “The FDA ignored the science and its own rules in blindly validating the reckless Democratic mail-order abortion plan,” she said in a statement.
In its reasons, the appeals court described as “probably arbitrary” the FDA’s decision to approve a series of reductions in access to mifepristone without sufficiently studying, according to it, the “cumulative effects” on the health.
(AFP)
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