US Supreme Court temporarily halts ban on the abortion pill

NGOs continue to protest Florida’s restriction on abortion after the sixth week

The U.S. Supreme Court has paralyzed this Friday the ban on the abortion pill, decreed by a Texas court, at least until next Wednesday, giving time to the various courts involved in the issue to deliberate on it.

A few hours earlier, the Justice Department had asked the Supreme Court to stay a Texas court’s recent ruling on restrictions on the use of the abortion pill, in what is the first case of this magnitude to come before the nation’s highest court since its justices struck down the constitutional right to abortion in June of last year.

The White House has welcomed the halt of these restrictions through a statement from its spokesperson, Karine Jean Pierre. “The president and his administration continue to support approval based on independent scientific evidence from the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration), an expert authority in researching, approving and regulating a wide range of drugs.”

“The stakes could not be higher after continued attacks on women’s health, and we will continue to fight to restore the protections of Reo v. Wade,” she added, referencing the 1973 legal precedent that allowed abortion nationwide and was overturned in 2022, opening the door to a wave of restrictive abortion measures in numerous states across the country.

Following the Supreme Court’s deadlock, its nine members would have to vote with a majority of at least five to four to have this restrictive measure permanently withdrawn.

NGOs protest against abortion restriction in Florida

The human rights organization HRW has described as “extreme” the measure adopted Thursday by the state of Florida, in the United States, which prohibits abortion from the sixth week of pregnancy, except in very specific cases such as rape, incest and when it is in a situation of trafficking, where it will allow abortion until the 15th week.

“This law violates Human Rights and denies pregnant people the ability to control their own bodies, lives and their futures,” they have denounced through a statement. Although the rule will not go into effect immediately — before the Florida Supreme Court must rule on a previous restriction on abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy — HRW denounces that the state is increasingly restrictive of women’s reproductive rights.

“This new law will force pregnant women to travel out of state for medical care, to manage an abortion away from the health care system, or to continue a pregnancy against their wishes,” they criticized.

In addition, the NGO has denounced that the rule — signed by the state’s governor, conservative Republican Ron DeSantis, under the name of the ‘Heartbeat Protection Act’ — will also provide 25 million dollars (22.5 million euros) to finance fake abortion clinics that “use misinformation and shame to try to dissuade pregnant people from seeking an abortion”.

Before achieving a Republican majority in its Congress, Florida was considered a destination for many women from neighboring states with even stricter bans, CNN reports, because of its comparatively advanced abortion laws. Florida is one of the leading Republican states in the growing conservative push to repeal abortion rights in the country, which began when the Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned legal precedent allowing termination of pregnancy since 1973.