WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that women must visit a doctor’s office, hospital or clinic in person to obtain an abortion pill during the COVID-19 pandemic, although similar rules for other drugs were lifted during the public health emergency.
Eight days before President Donald Trump stepped down, the judges appealed to the Trump administration to be able to impose a long-standing rule on obtaining the abortion pill, mifepristone. The pill does not need to be taken in the presence of medical professionals.
The court was divided into 6-3, with liberal judges in dissent. The new administration may suspend the application personally after Joe Biden took office on January 20.
A federal judge has suspended the rule since July because of the coronavirus, in response to an action by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other groups.
U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang said the rule was suspended in December, saying that the public health risks of patients increased with the increase in COVID-19 cases.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of mifepristone in combination with a second drug, misoprostol, to terminate an early pregnancy or control a miscarriage.
The government has suspended similar personal visits for other drugs, including opioids in some cases, but has refused to relax the rules for obtaining the abortion pill.
In October, the Supreme Court allowed women to continue receiving the abortion pill in the mail, but postponed any substantive decision. Ministers Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have responded to the government’s request at that time.
At the time, there were only eight ministers at court, as Minister Amy Coney Barrett had been nominated, but not yet confirmed. Barrett took the place of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September.