It may be coming soon.
Details from CBS News:
In the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, millions of Americans wondered what the future of abortion access might look like. They won’t wait long to find out.
Any day now, the current eight-justice Supreme Court is expected to issue its first decision on abortion access. The case, Food and Drug Administration v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, considers abortion via pill and whether patients, in the midst of a deadly pandemic, should still be required to make an in-person trip to a doctor’s office in order to receive the medication.
In front of the high court is whether to reverse lower courts’ preliminary injunctions that have temporarily suspended the FDA’s in-person rule.
Though the case doesn’t directly challenge Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, it promises to alter the way patients access the procedure and offers a glimpse into the future of a post-Ginsburg court.
“It’s clear that the future to the right to abortion is in serious peril, and our ability to get a safe, legal abortion is likely dependent on the next justice confirmed to the court,” Julia Kaye, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union and lead counsel challenging the FDA’s regulation, said Friday in a telephone interview with CBS News.
Read on for what else this case entails. Also, there’s this:
The Supreme Court’s eventual decision in this case may be a harbinger for how the court will view abortion rights in the absence of one of its fiercest supporters, Justice Ginsburg. Three abortion-related cases — including Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy — have reached the Supreme Court and the justices could decide to hear arguments on them as soon as next year’s term. Another 17 are one step away.
