ACLU To SCOTUS: Lower Courts Used “Junk Science” To Block Abortion Medication

Lower courts “relied at every stage on patently unreliable witnesses and studies,” the ACLU said in its amicus brief.

By Chris Walker, TRUTHOUT

An amicus brief — or “friend of the court” petition — submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) urges justices of the High Court to reject lower court orders that have sought to severely curtail access to abortion medication known as mifepristone.

The drug is used in a majority of abortions across the country, and is currently approved for up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. Deregulation of its use during the COVID-19 pandemic (and following the Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade in June 2022) allowed for the drug to be more widely available, permitting doctors to prescribe it through telemedicine and letting it be sent to patients through the mail.

However, actions by a far right federal judge in Texas, as well as affirmation of parts of that judgment from a conservative appellate court, now threaten access to the drug for those who want or need it. Both opinions, the ACLU writes in its brief to the Supreme Court, were based on “junk science.”