On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to consider whether to restrict access to the abortion pill as President Joe Biden’s administration fights to maintain broad access to the medication in a major case that thrusts reproductive rights back on the agenda of the justices in a presidential election year.
Biden’s administration is requesting of a lower court’s ruling that would limit how the medication, called mifepristone, is prescribed and distributed.
Four medical associations and four doctors who oppose abortion brought the challenge to mifepristone in Texas.
The arguments were set for 10 a.m. ET. In front of the court building, hundreds of abortion-rights and anti-abortion demonstrators held raucous rallies. Some placed banners on the street declaring, ‘Our bodies, our freedom’, while others held signs stating, ‘Chemical abortion hurts women’.
The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulatory changes at risk in the case include allowing for medication abortions at up to 10 weeks of pregnancy instead of seven, and for mail delivery of the drug without a woman first seeing a clinician in-person.
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, in 2022 overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade precedent that had recognized a constitutional right to abortion, prompting numerous states to enact Republican-backed measures banning or sharply restricting the procedure.
Since then, medication abortion has become the most common method of ending pregnancies in the United States, now accounting for more than 60% of abortions.
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