U.S. Supreme Court Blocks 'Abortion by Mail,' as Amy Coney Barrett Sides with 6-3 Majority
By: Michael Foust
One small step for man kind, one giant leap for pre born humanity. This is a good small step ruling. It simply leaves in place precedent dating to Clinton and Obama. It prevents yet another expansion of the ability to selfishly for the sake of money and or convenience to take a human life and prevent that life from being able to chose life.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
U.S. Supreme Court Blocks 'Abortion by Mail,' as Amy Coney Barrett Sides with 6-3 Majority
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a victory to pro-lifers Tuesday when it blocked a lower court decision and ruled the Food and Drug Administration can require pregnant women during the pandemic to visit a doctor before acquiring pills for a medical abortion.
At issue are FDA rules that require mifepristone – one of the two drugs involved in the abortion pill procedure – to be dispensed in-person “by or under the supervision of a certified prescriber.”
U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang last year said the FDA rules imposed a “substantial obstacle” to women during a pandemic. He allowed the pills to be mailed to women, without a doctor’s visit.
But on Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted a request from the FDA and issued a stay on Chuang’s decision. The FDA rules date back to the Clinton administration’s FDA, which approved the abortion pill in 2000. The Bush, Obama and Trump administrations maintained the doctor’s visit requirements.
Pro-life groups called the Supreme Court decision a victory, although the incoming Biden administration could reverse the rule.
The court’s conservative bloc remained intact in the 6-3 decision, with new Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the majority. It was her first abortion-related case. The court’s liberal bloc – Justices Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor – dissented.
“We are pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court recognizes the serious nature of chemical abortions and the need for the FDA to have protocols in place to protect women from potentially life-threatening and devastating side effects,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life.
National Right to Life said the FDA’s own “record of nearly two dozen deaths and thousands of complications” -- including severe hemorrhage and the rupture of undiscovered ectopic pregnancies -- “has proved” that the FDA restrictions are necessary to protect women.
“Chemical abortions put at risk healthy women who are pregnant with healthy babies,” Tobias said. “Women are not guinea pigs and putting them at risk so abortion activists can score political points is abhorrent.”
The abortion pill includes two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, causing the lining of the uterus to break down in order to kill the unborn baby. Misoprostol sparks contractions and a delivery of the dead child. They can be taken only early in the pregnancy, up to 48 hours apart.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a concurring opinion .
“The question before us is not whether the requirements for dispensing mifepristone impose an undue burden on a woman’s right to an abortion as a general matter,” Roberts wrote. “The question is instead whether the District Court properly ordered the Food and Drug Administration to lift those established requirements because of the court’s own evaluation of the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic. Here as in related contexts concerning government responses to the pandemic, my view is that courts owe significant deference to the politically accountable entities with the ‘background, competence, and expertise to assess public health.’
“... In light of those considerations,” Roberts wrote, “I do not see a sufficient basis here for the District Court to compel the FDA to alter the regimen for medical abortion.”
Related:
Pro-Choicers Urge Trump to Permit 'Abortion by Mail' during COVID-19
Photo courtesy: Bill Mason/Unsplash
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today , The Christian Po st , the Leaf-Chronicle , the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel .
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People are required to consult with a doctor before receiving all sorts of medicines, many of which tend to be associated with less severe complications and side effects than the drugs considered here.
Chemical abortion by mail doesn’t seem safe for the mother. How would they know the gestation period?
This is such dishonest intentionally inflammatory bullshit. There is no "child" being aborted between 0 and 8 weeks when these two drugs can be used. A zygote the size and shape of a kidney bean is not "a child".
Child: noun - a young person especially between infancy and puberty.
Anti-choice zealots using such language is beyond dishonest. Just because you think, against all facts, reality and the law, that a fertilized egg is a person, doesn't mean it is. That's simply some emotional bullshit dumb fucks opinion and should NEVER be used to strip others of their rights.
Thankfully, this ruling doesn't actually stop the use of these drugs or alter their current availability, it simply continues the requirement that they be administered “by or under the supervision of a certified prescriber.” But you can tell by the joyous reaction from anti-choice nut jobs that they believe this is somehow a step towards banning abortion even though its just keeping the status quo of having these drugs available at clinics and from doctors with enough backbone and empathy to make them available to their patients regardless of what the psycho religious zealots believe.