WASHINGTON. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court extended a two-day pause on a lower court decision that sought to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone, ensuring the drug remains widely available for the time being.

In a brief ruling, Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. announced that the recess would end Friday at midnight, giving the court more time to hear the case, although it could act before then.

The fact that the court missed the earlier deadline suggests there may be disagreement among judges in its first major abortion access case, since a conservative majority overturned the constitutional right to abortion in June. It may also indicate that there may be disagreements in the case.

This is the decision of Judge Matthew J. Kachsmarik of the Northern District of Texas, who in recent weeks invalidated the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, part of the most commonly used abortion method in the United States.

The court ruling slows down the confusing and rapidly changing mifepristone landscape, marked by conflicting Federal District Court decisions and an appeals panel decision that further complicated the drug’s legal status.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark 1973 case, in June the political and legal battles centered around abortion drugs. In some conservative states, lawmakers have made targeted pills.

Medical abortion, a two-component regimen, is usually used in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The first drug, mifepristone, blocks progesterone, a hormone that promotes pregnancy, and the second, misoprostol, taken one or two days later, causes contractions and helps the uterus expel its contents.

The controversy began in Texas in November, when an umbrella group of medical organizations and several anti-abortion doctors sued the FDA, challenging its approval of the pill more than two decades ago.

In their lawsuit, anti-abortion groups said the FDA did not follow proper protocols when it approved the drug in 2000. The groups said the agency has also ignored the dangers of the drug since then.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has vigorously countered these claims, said the drug was properly approved over 20 years ago and is very safe. He cited years of scientific research showing that serious complications are rare and that less than 1 percent of patients require hospitalization.

The lawsuit was filed in the Amarillo Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, where the case is heard by a single federal judge, Judge Kachsmarik, appointed by President Donald Trump.

Judge Kaczmarik, a longtime anti-abortion advocate, is a former lawyer for the First Freedom Institute, a religious freedom legal group that has long supported conservative views.

This month, Judge Kaczmarik announced a preliminary ruling that voided the FDA’s approval for the drug. But the judge said the agency has a week to seek emergency help before his decision goes into effect.

Judge Kaczmarik filled his decision with the language of the anti-abortion movement, calling abortion providers “abortions” and a fetus or embryo “an unborn person” or “an unborn child.” He appears to have agreed with virtually all of the claims made by anti-abortion groups.

Less than an hour later, another federal judge, Thomas O. Rice, appointed by President Barack Obama, delivered a controversial ruling in Washington State in another case. Judge Rice has barred the FDA from restricting the availability of mifepristone in much of the country.

The Washington State lawsuit, filed by Democratic attorneys general in 17 states and the District of Columbia, is a direct challenge to the Texas case.

The Biden administration immediately appealed the federal judge’s decision in Texas, and a three-judge division of the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit announced that mifepristone can remain legal and available while the lawsuit is pending. your way through the courts.

The panel rejected Judge Kaczmarik’s conclusion that the FDA approval of mifepristone was invalid. At the same time, judges have blocked recent moves by the FDA to make the drug more affordable, including allowing pills to be mailed.

The next day, Judge Rice upheld his decision, ordering the FDA to maintain the status quo in 18 jurisdictions, adding further confusion over the availability of abortion pills.

The duel orders virtually guaranteed that the case would go to the Supreme Court.

The Biden administration, seeking emergency help, has asked judges to suspend a lower court ruling aimed at restricting access to the pill. In its summary, the government argued that the decision had serious implications not only for access to abortion pills, but for the pharmaceutical industry as a whole.

The government said that if the decision goes into effect, it will “change the regulatory regime for mifepristone.”

In their brief, the anti-abortion groups that filed the lawsuit alleged that “for nearly a quarter of a century” the FDA and the drug’s manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, “brazenly disregarded the law and applicable regulations, ignored holes and red flags in their own safety data, deliberately evaded judicial scrutiny and consistently put politics ahead of women’s health.”

The government and Danko stressed how consistent the lower court orders would be if they remained in place.

“In the absence of a suspension, the unprecedented nationwide lower court rulings would violate the regulatory regime for a drug that the FDA determined was safe and effective under approved conditions and that has been used by more than five million American women over the past two decades,” Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar, representing the FDA, wrote in a second letter.

Danco Laboratories stated in its response that the plaintiffs’ argument “will radically rewrite existing jurisprudence”.

“If this lawsuit was about any other drug, there would be no dispute that a group of doctors, [1] do not appoint him [2] Relying on the statistical possibility of meeting a patient in need of follow-up care would be inappropriate,” the statement said.

Adam Liptak another Pam Bellak made a report.