The Supreme Court voted to keep extreme restrictions on a commonly used abortion pill from taking effect while litigation in the case continues. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the stay.
The restrictions came from Donald Trump-appointed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a longtime anti-abortion activist in Texas who, on April 7, issued an unprecedented and dubiously reasoned ruling suspending the Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.
A 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel, with two Trump appointees in the majority, then narrowed his ruling on dubious grounds of its own, leaving intact restrictions from Kacsmaryk’s ruling that would, among other things, bar mifepristone access by mail. But Kacsmaryk’s narrowed ruling still hadn’t gone into effect, while litigation played out over whether it can while the merits are being challenged. The 5th Circuit is set to hear oral arguments in the case on May 17.








