The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case clarifying the availability of a widely used abortion pill after a series of rulings this year resulted in restricted access to the drug, though it remains on the market.
The high court announced Wednesday that it would hear a pair of lawsuits brought by doctors and medical groups opposed to abortion, whose challenge to the abortion drug, known as mifepristone, resulted in a court order invalidating the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug — one that was eventually partially struck down on appeal.
Following an appeal from the Justice Department, the Supreme Court temporarily halted any changes to the drug’s availability, including yet another proposed change from a three-judge panel in the Fifth Circuit that rolled back the federal agency’s expanded approval of the drug in 2016.