Sadly, today, the United States Supreme Court granted a request from chemical abortion drug manufacturers to pause the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision in Louisiana v. FDA. The court has sent the case back to the Fifth Circuit for further review. This unfortunate decision means that while legal proceedings are underway in the Fifth Circuit, the lower court’s decision does not hold. Abortion drug providers can continue sending mifepristone into pro-life states, defying the laws of those states, circumventing an in-person consultation with a provider, and putting thousands of women and babies at risk.
We are heartbroken by the immediate ramifications of this decision, which will result in direct harm to women and countless preborn lives lost nationwide. In Louisiana alone, the state estimates 1,000 preborn lives are lost each month to these pills. In the U.S., 1 in 10 women taking mifepristone each year experience serious, often life-threatening, adverse complications, harming women at a rate of over 22 times the reported rate for mifepristone.
What did the justices say about the abortion pill case?
The unsigned order was posted in the case docket, as is common for emergency actions by the Supreme Court. Justices Alito and Thomas dissented to the court’s decision, with the votes of the seven other justices not made public.
Justice Thomas expressed in his dissent that the abortion drug companies “are not entitled to a stay of an adverse court order based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise. They cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes.”
Justice Alito rightly commented that “the Court’s unreasoned order granting stays in this case is remarkable. What is at stake is the perpetration of a scheme to undermine our decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization . . . which restored the right of each State to decide how to regulate abortions within its borders.”
What happens next in this abortion-pill case?
Now, the case returns to the Fifth Circuit where the appellate court will consider the merits of the appeal. Once the Fifth Circuit rules, the case will be passed back to the district court, which paused the proceedings of the case at the request of the FDA, as they asserted their on-going safety review of mifepristone.
ERLC engagement opposing the abortion pill
In our efforts to bring an end to abortion, the ERLC has persistently worked to curb access to the chemical abortion pill. While the judicial branch examines this case, the executive branch can take swift action. The ERLC sent a letter to the Trump administration in January calling upon the FDA to remove mifepristone from the market. We pray that the FDA, now under new leadership, will act quickly to roll back access to this dangerous drug, which will be one more step toward the end of chemical abortion for good.
We invite Southern Baptists to join us in praying to this end.
See ERLC’s statements celebrating the May 1 decision and detailing the May 4 update for more information.
