(Washington) The American Supreme Court on Thursday restored full access to the abortion pill, which the fiercest opponents of abortion wanted to restrict, but President Joe Biden called for people not to let their guard down in the face of their attacks.
In their unanimous decision, the nine judges of the conservative-majority court denied the “interest in bringing an action”, a condition for taking legal action, of the plaintiffs – associations of doctors or practitioners opposed to abortion 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 bring 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 about medical abortions,” she added.
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.
The Guttmacher Institute, an authoritative pro-abortion research center, said it was “relieved” that the Supreme Court had made “the only reasonable decision” possible on mifepristone, but lamented that this complaint “in bad faith and without factual or scientific basis” was not rejected well before.
“We must remain vigilant. The anti-abortion movement has relentlessly pursued its goal of banning abortion nationwide,” added Destiny Lopez, co-president of the Guttmacher Institute.
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 on abortion pills will not stop there,” she warned, stressing that the anti-abortion movement was “willing 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 reiterated that the relief from Rules decided by the agency endanger women’s health.
Citing potential risks that have been 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 the tablets by post and made the delivery of the tablets compulsory once again. prescription exclusively by a doctor.
On another front in the battle for reproductive rights, Republican senators blocked a Democratic bill on Thursday to protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).
“Trump’s friends in the Senate are showing once again that they do not recognize women’s fundamental right to make decisions for their health and their own bodies,” responded Kamala Harris.