The Supreme Court has stopped Arizona from enforcing a law that restricts access to abortion-inducing drugs until a legal challenge to the rules plays out in the courts.
The justices left in place an appeals court ruling that blocked Arizona from regulating when and how women can take medications that cause abortions, such as RU-486, the so-called “abortion pill.”
As is customary, the Supreme Court gave no reason why it had declined to review the case.
A spokeswoman for Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said officials weren’t surprised by the high court’s move, saying it would have been extremely rare for the justices to grant the state’s request to enforce the restrictions.
“We’re disappointed, of course, but at this point there is nothing more that we can do,” said spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham.
The Arizona law bans women from taking RU-486, or mifepristone — the most common abortion-inducing drug — after the seventh week of pregnancy. The Food and Drug Administration in 2000 approved the drug only up to the seventh week.
Since the FDA approval, medical research has shown the drug is effective for two weeks longer in a pregnancy, said challengers to the law.
Planned Parenthood, which is among the abortion providers challenging the rules in federal court, said laws that place stringent restrictions on “medical abortions” are unconstitutional and hurt women.
“The court did the right thing today, but this dangerous and misguided law should never have passed in the first place,” said said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “Politicians are not medical experts.”
Arizona said its law, which its state legislature approved in 2012, is needed to protect the lives of women from using the drug for purposes that were not approved by the FDA.
Wire reports contributed to this story.
