Now they want to restrict access to Mifepristone. It’s not about safety.

The US Supreme Court will decide this year whether to reverse a lower court’s ruling that would impose new restrictions on the drug Mifepristone — banning its distribution by mail, shortening the time of approved use, and requiring that it be taken in the presence of a physician. The case was cooked up by Alliance Defending Freedom, the “Christian law firm” behind the Mississippi law that resulted in the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v Wade.

Facts: More than half of abortions in the US are medication abortions, which are approved for use up to ten weeks of pregnancy. Mifepristone is safe, and more than five million people have used it since 2000.

For decades, a large majority of Americans have supported access to legal abortion. More than two-thirds hold the view that abortion up to twelve weeks is a personal matter between patient and doctor. That means they agreed with the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v Wade decision, ruling that in the first trimester of pregnancy the state could not interfere with a woman’s right to abortion. Those who believe abortion should be illegal in all cases have always been in the minority — the percentage who now hold that view is at an all-time low of 13%.

When SCOTUS overturned Roe v Wade, they dismissed fifty years of legal precedent — and fifty years of the public’s perception of the Court as an institution at least trying to appear separate and apart from party politics. If the Court allows this new restriction on Mifepristone to take effect, at the behest of the Alliance Defending Freedom, they will be disregarding twenty years of evidence regarding the drug’s safety and efficacy, and it will be obvious they’re doing it for purely political reasons.