2023-04-20 11:10:45
The Supreme Court of the United States once again postponed, on Wednesday (19), the long-awaited decision on access to the abortion pill widely used in the country, mifepristone. With the postponement, full access to the drug was allowed for at least another 48 hours, a period that expires at midnight on Friday (21), time in the American capital, Washington (1am in the morning in Brazil).
Cleide Klock, Los Angeles correspondent
This is yet another chapter in a long saga that has disheartened abortion and women’s rights advocates. Less than 10 months ago, the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority (6 judges appointed by the Republicans against 3 Democrats), revoked the constitutional right to abortion in the country, which had been an achievement in the early 1970s. the Joe Biden administration expanded access to the abortion pill, sold in pharmacies, and so the drug ended up being the new target of conservatives.
Since November, conservatives have begun an escalation to target the pill, used in more than half of all abortions in the United States. More than five million American women have taken mifepristone since it was authorized by the drug regulatory agency (FDA) more than 20 years ago. However, in the last two weeks, the decision to ban the sale of the abortion pill, decreed by Texas federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, on April 7, started a judicial clash and also a political and scientific fight over abortion.
The fact that the court has not met the deadline and is once again postponing its opinion on the case – the first time was last week – raises speculation that there may be disagreement between the judges. Although the conservative majority managed to overturn the constitutional right to abortion last year, the decision to ban the use of the abortion pill is not as simple as that. The postponement may indicate a dissent or even that the judges do not want to pick a fight with the FDA agency or perhaps with the pharmaceutical industry.
push-push
The parties had until Tuesday (18) to present their allegations. The anti-abortion coalition, in its argument, insisted that the Supreme Court uphold the Texas judge’s ruling, emphasizing that if the medication continues to be released, “it will cause more physical complications, emotional trauma and even the death of women.” Anti-abortion groups allege that the FDA and the company that makes the drug (Danco) did not follow proper protocols when they approved mifepristone in the year 2000, and ignored the dangers for the next two decades.
The FDA already cites scientific studies that prove the safety of the pill. According to the regulatory agency, monitoring carried out over 20 years of drug use shows that serious complications are rare and less than 1% of patients require hospitalization.
The Justice Department, which is leading the defense of the drug’s sale, maintains that the Texas judge’s decision was based on a “profoundly misguided assessment” of the pill’s safety.
Democratic Representative Katherine Clark said on Wednesday that the Supreme Court “faces a choice between upholding legal and scientific fact or capitulating to extremism.”
Many American scientists and policy analysts fear that this lawsuit will set a dangerous precedent by allowing the judiciary to interfere with the autonomy of the agency that regulates drugs. The case of the abortion pill could pave the way for the courts to prohibit, under ideological arguments, other procedures and drugs, such as, for example, vaccines or antidepressants.
Learn how medical abortion works
Abortion by taking medication is a procedure usually performed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Two distinct drugs are used in the procedure. The first of these, mifepristone, blocks progesterone, a hormone that allows pregnancy to develop; the second, misoprostol, taken a day or two later, causes contractions and helps the uterus expel its contents.
If mifepristone is prohibited, there is already discussion of continuing to do the procedure with only the second substance. However, this therapeutic approach does not have as effective a response as the one that combines the two drugs.
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