It concerned the drug mifepristone, which is used for more than half of all abortions in the United States. The Justice Department and the manufacturer of the drug had filed an urgent request to intervene after the Texas ruling, which had meant that distribution of the abortion pill would have been suspended in the short term. In that case, the pill might have been unavailable for months pending lawsuits.
US President Joe Biden praised the Supreme Court ruling Friday. He said: “There couldn’t be more at stake for women across the country. I will continue to fight against politically driven attacks on women’s healthcare.” Planned Parenthood, a health organization that runs many abortion clinics in the US, said on Twitter: “This is good news, but access to mifepristone should never have been at stake.”
Conservative Chief Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said Friday that they disagreed with the Court’s ruling. Since Donald Trump’s administration, the Supreme Court has been dominated by conservative justices and last summer the court struck down the nationwide right to abortion. Twelve states now have abortion bans.