Supreme Court pre­serves ac­cess to abor­tion pill as court cas­es play out

The Supreme Court Fri­day evening said that na­tion­wide ac­cess to the abor­tion pill mifepri­s­tone should con­tin­ue, re­ject­ing a Texas dis­trict court’s call to re­move the drug’s ap­proval.

The stay will al­low an ap­peals case and oth­er le­gal chal­lenges to play out with­out chang­ing ac­cess to the drug, which can be used to in­duce an abor­tion in the first 10 weeks of preg­nan­cy.

The court’s stay is a win for the FDA and the phar­ma in­dus­try, which had both warned that re­scind­ing the ap­proval of mifepri­s­tone or its gener­ics could have rip­ple ef­fects for oth­er drugs. It’s al­so a vic­to­ry for Dan­co Lab­o­ra­to­ries and Gen­Bio­Pro, which make mifepri­s­tone, and had raised ques­tions on how they would con­tin­ue to mar­ket their prod­ucts.

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