The American Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it would take up the question of the abortion pill, used in more than half of abortions in the United States and the subject of an intense legal battle.
The high court will have to rule on a decision by an appeals court having reinstated restrictions on the use of the abortion pill, which could apply to all American states, but which is currently suspended.
The Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, is expected to study the case in the coming months to render a decision by the end of its annual session in June.
Democratic President Joe Biden quickly made it known that he was “firmly” committed to defending access to abortion in the United States, in a statement from the White House.
If the decision of the court of appeal, in August in New Orleans, was confirmed, this would result in particular in a return to a maximum limit of seven weeks of pregnancy instead of ten to benefit from an abortion, a ban of sending the abortion pill by post, and the reinstatement of the obligation to prescribe exclusively by a doctor.
The question is that of access to mifepristone (RU 486) which, combined with another pill, has been used by 5.6 million women since its approval by the United States Medicines Agency (FDA) in 2000. April, a federal judge in Texas suspended access to mifepristone.
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority following the appointments made under the presidency of Donald Trump, overturned its Roe v. Wade, who since 1973 had guaranteed the right of American women to have an abortion, and gave each state the freedom to legislate on the matter.
Since then, the country has been fractured between the twenty or so states that have banned or strictly restricted access to abortion, mainly located in the south and center of the country, and those on the coasts that have adopted new guarantees.
The abortion pill issue is the most important abortion case considered by the Supreme Court since its historic decision in June 2022.
More than half of abortions (53%) in the United States in 2020 were medical, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a specialist on the subject. Abortions using mifepristone and misoprostol within the authorized time frame are very safe and effective, all experts insist.
In the United States, this method has been authorized by the United States Medicines Agency (FDA) since 2000.