This week, the ATS joined the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association and a dozen other medical professional societies in an amicus brief or – friend of the court brief – urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in favor of allowing mifepristone, a drug used for medical abortions, to remain available to patients and physicians. Oral arguments in this case will be presented before the U.S. Supreme Court in March.

The case, which is the Supreme Court’s first significant return to the abortion issue since it overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, could affect access to medical abortion, even in states that continue allow access abortion services. 

The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine is challenging FDA’s approval of mifepristone – one of a two drug combination commonly used in medical abortions – contending that agency did not adequately study the safety risks of the drug before approving it for sale in 2000 and subsequent expansions of access to mifepristone use in 2021.

The amicus brief submitted by the medical professional societies makes three key points. First, that mifepristone is safe and effective.  Second, that the drug has been extensively studied, both in pre-approval studies and extensive post-market studies. Third, that reserving FDA’s approval of mifepristone would severely limit women’s access to proven safe and effect medical care and would have a disproportionate impact on low-income, minority and rural women. 

While the Fifth District Court of Appeals has ruled against the FDA on mifepristone, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued a temporary injunction blocking the Fifth Districts ruling from taking effect until the Supreme Court has considered the FDA appeal.  The U.S. Supreme Court