Last Updated: April 22, 2023, 06:48 IST
Biden on Friday pledged to defend women’s health from politically-driven attacks (Image: Reuters).
This statement came after the apex court in the country preserved access to a widely used abortion pill
US President Joe Biden on Friday pledged to defend women’s health from “politically-driven attacks” after the Supreme Court temporarily preserved broad access to a widely used abortion pill.
“The stakes could not be higher for women across America. I will continue to fight politically-driven attacks on women’s health,” Biden said in a statement.
This statement came after the apex court in the country preserved access to a widely used abortion pill, freezing rulings by lower courts that would have banned or severely restricted the availability of the drug.
Two US justices disagreed with the decision in the most significant abortion case to reach the nine-member court since it overturned the constitutional right to the procedure 10 months ago, according to AFP.
On Friday, the US Supreme Court granted the Department of Justice’s emergency stay application in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v FDA, preventing a lower court decision from going into effect that would have undermined FDA’s medical judgment and put women’s health at risk.
“As a result of the Supreme Court’s stay, mifepristone remains available and approved for safe and effective use while we continue this fight in the courts. I continue to stand by FDA’s evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and my Administration will continue to defend FDA’s independent, expert authority to review, approve, and regulate a wide range of prescription drugs,” the statement added.
The Justice Department under President Joe Biden has urgently requested the Supreme Court to overturn lower court decisions that would limit or prohibit access to mifepristone.
This action comes in response to a lawsuit by anti-abortion organizations, which a US District Court judge in Texas had ruled in favor of, seeking to ban the medication.
Although an appeals court stopped the ban on the abortion pill, it imposed severe constraints on its availability, leading the case to be escalated to the Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court’s verdict effectively puts a hold on the lower court’s decisions until the appellate court hears the Justice Department and mifepristone manufacturer Danco Laboratories’ appeal.
US Vice President Kamala Harris issued a separate statement praising the Supreme Court verdict.
We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to grant a stay.Access to mifepristone is preserved for now — and our fight to defend reproductive freedom continues. pic.twitter.com/SkHvBNUpa3
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) April 22, 2023
“We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to grant a stay in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, and our fight to defend reproductive freedom continues. The Court’s announcement preserves access to mifepristone-a safe and effective medication that was approved by the FDA more than two decades ago,” she said.
“The President and I will continue to fight to protect a woman’s freedom to make decisions about her own body and access to reproductive health care, including medication abortion. No one should stand between a woman and her doctor.”
Planned Parenthood, a leading abortion provider and advocacy group, praised a US Supreme Court decision on Friday freezing rulings by lower courts that would have banned or severely restricted availability of the widely used drug mifepristone.
“This is good news, but the facts remain the same: Access to mifepristone should never have been in jeopardy in the first place,” the organization tweeted.
(With agency inputs)
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