The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday (April 21) the abortion pill will remain on the market for the time being while its approval is legally challenged.
In a 7-2 decision, the high court granted stays to lower court opinions that suspended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s legalization of the abortion drug or restored previous restrictions on its use. As a result, mifepristone, the first drug in a two-step process commonly referred to as medical or chemical abortion, will be available under the same guidelines in place before court decisions the last two weeks.
The New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had restored earlier conditions on mifepristone’s use, is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case May 17.
Medical/chemical procedures constitute a majority of all abortions in the United States. Medical/chemical abortions increased between 2001 and 2020 from 5% of all such procedures to 53%, the Guttmacher Institute reported in December.
Pro-life advocates have long opposed the legalization of mifepristone. The ERLC and other pro-life organizations worked to prevent the introduction of the abortion pill into the United States for more than a decade before the FDA gave its approval. In 2020, then-ERLC President Russell Moore and more than 20 other pro-life leaders called for the FDA to categorize mifepristone as an “imminent hazard to the public health” and to withdraw it from the market because of its threat to women as well as preborn children.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Read the full article written by Tom Strode of Baptist Press here. Read how one Alabama pregnancy resource center is ministering to area residents who are abortion-minded below.
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