The US Supreme Courtroom on Wednesday quickly preserved entry to a widely-used abortion capsule, delaying its choice on decrease court docket rulings inserting restrictions on the drug.

With out commenting on the deserves of the case, the nation’s highest court docket prolonged an administrative keep freezing the decrease court docket selections till midnight Friday (0400 GMT Saturday).

The preliminary keep got here after the Justice Division filed an emergency enchantment asking the court docket to dam the decrease court docket rulings that might have banned or restricted use of mifepristone, which accounts for greater than half of the abortions in america.

That keep had been scheduled to run out at midnight Wednesday and the court docket, in an order signed by Justice Samuel Alito, opted to increase the maintain on the rulings for 2 extra days.

The extension offers the court docket extra time to determine what to do with the divisive case, probably the most important on reproductive rights because it tossed out the constitutional proper to abortion final yr in an opinion penned by Alito, a conservative.

The nine-member panel can rule in any variety of methods, and abortion rights and anti-abortion activists — in addition to hundreds of thousands of Individuals — have been on tenterhooks ready to see how the conservative-dominated court docket proceeds.

The case stems from a ruling this month by a US District Courtroom choose in Texas that might have banned mifepristone, which was authorized to be used by the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000.

An appeals court docket blocked a ban on the capsule, however imposed powerful restrictions on entry, after which the baton was handed to the Supreme Courtroom.

The Supreme Courtroom, the place conservatives wield a 6-3 majority, on Friday quickly stayed the decrease court docket rulings because it weighs what to do subsequent.

The court docket may determine to freeze the decrease court docket rulings pending an enchantment from the Justice Division and the mifepristone producer Danco Laboratories.

It may additionally enable the rulings proscribing entry to the abortion capsule to take impact whereas the case performs out on the appellate stage.

The court docket may additionally determine to listen to arguments within the case itself on an expedited foundation.

Complicating the case even additional is a ruling by a separate federal court docket in Washington state that stated entry to mifepristone needs to be maintained.

– ‘Clear selection’ –

Because the Supreme Courtroom overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that enshrined the constitutional proper to abortion for half a century, 13 states have banned abortion and it has been severely restricted in others.

Democratic Consultant Katherine Clark stated Wednesday that the court docket faces a “clear selection.”

“Uphold authorized and scientific truth or capitulate to MAGA extremism,” Clark stated in a reference to former Republican president Donald Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more” slogan.

“This case marks simply the most recent assault within the MAGA campaign on reproductive freedom,” Clark instructed reporters. “Republicans have one purpose — a nationwide abortion ban.”

Opposition to the authorized assault on the abortion capsule is being spearheaded by the Justice Division, which argued that the preliminary federal choose’s ruling was based mostly on a “deeply misguided evaluation” of the capsule’s security.

Mifepristone is one element of a two-drug routine that can be utilized by way of the primary 10 weeks of being pregnant. It has a protracted security file, and the FDA estimates 5.6 million Individuals have used it to terminate pregnancies because it was authorized.

The appellate court docket, whereas placing down the ban on mifepristone, restricted its use to seven weeks of being pregnant, down from 10, and prohibited distribution by mail.

Polls repeatedly present a transparent majority of Individuals assist continued entry to secure abortion, at the same time as conservative teams push to restrict the process — or ban it outright.