Next spring, the justices will hear appeals from the Biden administration and the maker of the drug mifepristone who are asking the high court to reverse a decision from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that would cut access to the drug through the mail and impose other restrictions, even in states where abortion remains legal.
The restrictions include shortening from the current 10 weeks to seven weeks the time during which mifepristone can be used in pregnancy.
The nine justices rejected a separate appeal from abortion opponents who challenged the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) initial approval of mifepristone as safe and effective in 2000.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) senior counsel Erin Hawley tells AFN that every court so far has agreed that the FDA acted unlawfully in removing commonsense safeguards for women and authorizing dangerous mail-order abortions.
"We urge the Supreme Court to do the same," she continues. "The FDA has harmed the health of women and undermined the rule of law by illegally removing every meaningful safeguard from the chemical abortion drug regimen."
Like any federal agency, Hawley says the FDA must rationally explain its decisions, which will be especially difficult in this case.
"Its removal of commonsense safeguards—like a doctor's visit before women are prescribed chemical abortion drugs—does not reflect scientific judgment but rather a politically driven decision to push a dangerous drug regimen," she points out.
Jim Harden of CompassCare says that a ruling in this case could have broader ramifications than even the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, as it could cut abortion in half overnight.
"These high-profile cases that we have seen, including the chemical abortion case out of the 5th Circuit, have sparked violence against pro-life entities in the last 19 months or so," he accounts.
His own facility in Buffalo, New York fell victim to violence in the wake of the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade.
"The political stakes are also high, as this case could very well influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, as they expect a ruling sometime next June," Harden adds.
He is concerned about another Supreme Court leak sparking more violence against pro-life pregnancy centers like his — and whether or not the U.S. Marshals will protect the justices from threats and violence.
"They did not do [that] the last time when the Dobbs case was leaked," the pro-lifer remembers.
According to the Associated Press, chemical abortion has become the most common method of ending preborn babies' lives in the United States.
