In the battle for women's health

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a preliminary injunction to vacate the FDA's approval of the drug [mifepristone] altogether.

The FDA responded by requesting an emergency stay of the decision, elevating the case for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to weigh in.

The appellate panel then issued a complicated ruling on the injunction, siding in part with the FDA and part with the anti-abortion coalition.

[...]

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has placed a hold on a lower court ruling that restricts access to the abortion drug mifepristone until Wednesday night. Alito also instructed that any responses be filed by April 18 at noon.

[...]

Portions of a Texas district court's order that limits the drug would have otherwise taken effect April 15, but Alito's order put it on pause.

[...]

The administration brief calls the lower court rulings "unprecedented" and says they "unleashed regulatory chaos" by suspending the existing FDA-approved conditions of use for mifepristone."

[...]

"The district court countermanded the scientific judgment the FDA has maintained across five administrations; nullified the approval of a drug that has been safely used by millions of Americans over more than two decades; and upset reliance interests in the health care system that depends on the availability of mifepristone as an alternative to surgical abortion for women who choose to lawfully terminate their early pregnancies." The administration said those harms would be felt throughout the nation because mifepristone has lawful uses in every state, regardless of whether abortion is legal, for instance, to treat women who have miscarried.

[...]

Meanwhile, a competing ruling out of Washington state could limit the Texas injunction's reach.

The final ruling from the appellate panel led the DOJ to appeal even higher to the Supreme Court in hopes of ensuring access to the drug is fully restored.

  NPR

What isn't explained in this article is the extreme bullshit of having the original suit brought by some doctors who claimed standing to sue by virtue of the fact that someone might some day come to them for treatment after having had complications from the use of mifepristone. (Additionally, they called the cramping and expulsion of uterine material "side effects" of the drug. That's not side effects, that's effects. That's what the drug is supposed to do. That's how a pregnancy ends.)

And never mind that this situation has never been presented to them, and is unlikely to ever be presented to them due to the drug's safety record (safer than Tylenol), and the probability that if someone did have complications they would go to the doctor who prescribed mifepristone to them in the first place and not to these assholes.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 02:58 pm:  Well, lookie here...

So much slime in the "conservative" world.