Two years after the Supreme Court tossed out a challenge to the widely used abortion drug mifepristone, the justices must again decide whether access should be restricted. In emergency appeals filed May 2, two drug makers asked the court to immediately pause a lower court ruling limiting access.

The conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 1 temporarily reinstated a Food and Drug Administration requirement that doctors prescribe the drug only after an in-person exam. The three-judge panel did so in response to a challenge from Louisiana to the elimination of that requirement by the Biden administration.

Louisiana argues that allowing the drug to be dispensed through the mail ignores the threat of complications from mifepristone, such as sepsis and hemorrhaging, The state also says mailed delivery of the drug allows women to get around abortion bans.

Multiple Republican-led states are trying to make it harder for women to access mifepristone, a pill used in nearly two-thirds of abortions across the U.S. – including states that have largely banned abortion.

A solid majority of Americans oppose a federal abortion ban and a rising number support access to abortions for any reason, a new poll finds, as the November election draws closer.

Around 6 in 10 Americans think their state should generally allow a person to obtain a legal abortion if they don’t want to be pregnant for any reason, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That’s an increase from June 2021, a year before the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure, when about half of Americans thought legal abortion should be possible under these circumstances.

Americans are largely opposed to the strict bans that have taken effect in Republican-controlled states since the high court’s ruling two years ago. Full bans, with limited exceptions, have gone into effect in........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)