The District’s top prosecutor said Friday that he’ll continue to advocate for a popular abortion medication following a Supreme Court ruling that puts the drug’s access in legal limbo.
The high court halted two rulings that would have limited the availability of mifepristone, which is used in more than half of all abortions in the country.
The drug’s fate will now be argued next month in a lower court, prompting D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb to note that “it leaves the door open to blocking access to this safe and effective prescription drug in the future.”
“My office is committed to protecting reproductive freedom in the District and across the country, and we won’t allow politics to limit heath care options for DC residents or visitors,” Schwalb said Friday evening.
Schwalb joined a multistate lawsuit to expand access to medication abortion earlier this month and led a coalition that filed a challenge to a Texas judge’s ruling that could have overturned the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.
The Supreme Court granted emergency requests from the Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the maker of mifepristone, to appeal the Texas ruling.
“We’ll continue fighting to make sure that abortion care — including prescription medication abortion — remains accessible here in the District,” the attorney general said.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments related to this case on May 17.
