(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito penned a dissenting opinion that systematically dismantled the high court’s ruling Thursday to temporarily extend access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
“As narrowed by the Court of Appeals, the stay that would apply if we failed to broaden it would not remove mifepristone from the market,” wrote Alito, who along with Justice Clarence Thomas offered the court’s only dissent. “It would simply restore the circumstances that existed (and that the Government defended) from 2000 to 2016 under three Presidential administrations.”
The drug that kills unborn babies and has been found dangerous to women’s health by numerous medical studies was approved by the Biden administration for widespread use and distribution by mail. In response, a group of pro-life doctors and medical groups filed suit, arguing that the drug was unsafe and seeking to have the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone rescinded.
Texas federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk agreed that the drug had been approved despite “legitimate safety concerns” and suspended its approval.
The Biden administration sought relief in the 5th Circuit, along with Danco Labs, the company that distributes mifepristone. The 5th Circuit put a partial freeze on Kacsmaryk’s decision, but it only suspended part of the ruling.
Not satisfied with an outcome that didn’t give wholesale access to the abortion drug, the administration took its case to SCOTUS to put whole order on hold, while a decision was litigated in the 5th Circuit.
The allegedly conservative-majority Supreme Court agreed and on Thursday issued its ruling to allow continued, unfettered access, including by mail, to the abortion drug.
Radical abortion activists and their leftist Democrat allies praised the court’s decision, but vowed to continue fighting until it had totally secured the right to kill unborn babies using a drug that can be harmful to women.
“Today’s stay by the Supreme Court is welcome, but temporary. We must protect abortion access. Permanently,” demanded Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Alito, in his dissenting opinion, ripped the FDA for trying to create “chaos” and argued that the 5th Circuit’s ruling should have been left in place until the lower court reached a decision. Oral arguments in the case are slated for May 17.
“At present, the applicants are not entitled to a stay because they have not shown that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the interim,” Alito wrote. “Our granting of a stay of a lower-court decision is an equitable remedy. It should not be given if the moving party has not acted equitably, and that is the situation here.”
Alliance Defending Freedom, the group representing doctors and medical groups challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, said it was disappointed, but not surprised by the court’s ruling.
“As is common practice, the Supreme Court has decided to maintain the status quo that existed prior to our lawsuit while our challenge to the FDA’s illegal approval of chemical abortion drugs and its removal of critical safeguards for those drugs moves forward,” ADF senior counsel Erik Baptist told Life News, and vowed to continue its fight.
“The FDA must answer for the damage it has caused to the health of countless women and girls and the rule of law by failing to study how dangerous the chemical abortion drug regimen is and unlawfully removing every meaningful safeguard, even allowing for mail-order abortions,” Baptist said. “We look forward to a final outcome in this case that will hold the FDA accountable.”
