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Health Secretary Becerra prepares for legal fight over abortion pill
The Supreme Court set a date of March 26 to hear oral arguments in a high-stakes case over access to mifepristone, a commonly used abortion pill. "This is the court’s first big foray back into reproductive choice and abortion," said Jessica Levinson, law professor at Loyola Marymount University.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The Supreme Court set a date of March 26 to hear oral arguments in a high-stakes case over access to mifepristone, a commonly used abortion pill.
"This is the court’s first big foray back into reproductive choice and abortion," said Jessica Levinson, law professor at Loyola Marymount University.
The last case resulted in the high court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. In the mifepristone case, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a conservative group, is challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s expansion of access to the drug.
"The legal question is really all about the FDA and whether it went through the proper procedures when it made it easier to obtain mifepristone," explained Levinson. "When it said, you don’t have to go to a doctor’s office three times, you can get mifepristone over the phone, when it said you can take mifepristone up to ten weeks of pregnancy instead of seven weeks."
Mifepristone is used with another drug, misoprostol, in more than half of abortions nationwide. The Biden administration is urging the Supreme Court to reverse the ruling from a federal appeals court, that limits access to the pill, even in states where abortion is legal. That decision is on hold for now. "It’s important that if our scientific agency has determined there’s a drug that can be helpful to Americans, safe and effective, that Americans have access to that drug," said Xavier Becerra, U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services.
Secretary Becerra joined Vice President Kamala Harris in San Jose as the Biden-Harris campaign works to make abortion rights a focus of the upcoming election. "We cannot afford to have any politics, interfere with people’s access to the healthcare they need," said Becerra.
Anti-abortion groups have said the lower court’s decision "restores common sense safeguards." While those supporting the White House’s challenge, say it "turns back the clock on reproductive freedom."
Santa Clara and San Francisco counties joined others in an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court Tuesday, calling for a reversal. A potential decision in the case is expected by the end of June.