JUSTICES BLOCK BID TO REVIVE ABORTION PILL CURB

Case sent back to judge who lifted rule requiring doctor visit

WASHINGTON

The Supreme Court on Thursday declined a Trump administration request to require women seeking the drugs for medication abortions to visit a doctor’s office or clinic, but sent the case back to a Maryland federal judge who had lifted the rule due to the pandemic.

The court’s unsigned disposition of the petition came after six weeks of consideration, and brought a rebuke from two of the court’s conservatives for their colleagues, and for U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang.

“While COVID-19 has provided the ground for restrictions on First Amendment rights, the District Court saw the pandemic as a ground for expanding the abortion right recognized in Roe v. Wade,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito, who was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.

Alito said the court has “stood by” while officials imposed restrictions on religious activities and “drastically limited speech, banning or restricting public speeches, lectures, meetings, and rallies.”

The court’s action in this case cannot be squared with that, Alito wrote.

Chuang ruled in July that requiring an in-person visit to obtain the medications needed to induce abortion was burdensome. There is no requirement that a woman take the medication in a clinic setting, and most take the pills that end a pregnancy in its early stages at home.

At the request of abortion providers and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Chuang imposed a nationwide injunction against the Food and Drug Administration directive.

After a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to put Chuang’s order on hold, acting solicitor general Jeffrey Wall went to the Supreme Court.

Instead of agreeing with the government’s petition, the court’s order issued Thursday directed Chuang to “promptly consider a motion by the government to dissolve, modify, or stay the injunction, including on the ground that relevant circumstances have changed.”

The case took on added significance because it was the first abortion order issued after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court’s most outspoken advocate for abortion rights.