Abortion drug mifepristone.Photo: Phil Walter/Getty

The abortion drug Mifepristone, also known as RU486, is pictured in an abortion clinic February 17, 2006 in Auckland, New Zealand. The drug, which has been available in New Zealand for four years and is used in many countries around the world, is expected to be available to Australian women within a year after parliament yesterday approved a bill which transfers regulatory control of the drug to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, a government body of scientists and doctors that regulates all other drugs in Australia.

The Supreme Court has delayed its ruling on the abortion pill mifepristone until Friday.

On April 14, Alito granted a temporary, five-day pause of a Texas order deeming the Food and Drug Administration-approved drug unsafe, according toABC News.

Though the appeals court preserved access to the pill, it also reverted to earlier usage rules of the drug. Mifepristone can no longer be sent via mail and it’s only available to women up to seven weeks of pregnancy instead of ten.

Abortion drug mifepristone.Allen G. Breed/AP Photo

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 deciding whether women will face restrictions in getting a drug used in the most common method of abortion in the United States, while a lawsuit continues.

On April 7, a federal judge in Texas halted the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, effectively delivering an initial blow to abortion rights following the Supreme Court’s dismantling ofRoe v. Wadein June 2022.

The proposed reversal would extend to states where abortion rights are currently protected.

“[The] FDA acquiesced on its legitimate safety concerns — in violation of its statutory duty — based on plainly unsound reasoning and studies that did not support its conclusions,” Kacsmaryk wrote in his 67-page opinion,perTheWashington Post.The judge then stayed his ruling for seven days to allow time for appeals.

According toThe Washington Post, Kacsmaryk’s ruling marked the first time a court has ordered the FDA to remove a medication from the market despite opposition from the agency and the drug’s manufacturer.

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“We are going to continue to fight in the courts, we believe the law is on our side, and we will prevail,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said while addressing reporters last week, perAP News.

“The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the decision of the District Court for the Northern District of Texas inAlliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDAand will be appealing the court’s decision and seeking a stay pending appeal,” the statement read. “Today’s decision overturns the FDA’s expert judgment, rendered over two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective. The Department will continue to defend the FDA’s decision.”

source: people.com