Supreme Court restores in-person requirement for obtaining abortion pills
The Supreme Court on Tuesday restored an FDA rule requiring people seeking abortion pills to acquire them in-person. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo
Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume enforcing a rule requiring abortion polls be obtained in person at approved healthcare facilities.
In a 6-3 ruling Tuesday, the court's conservative majority lifted a nationwide injunction that allowed people seeking abortion pills to receive them through mail or delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Medical and advocacy groups challenged Food and Drug Administration rules requiring patients to obtain the medication -- prescribed for abortions in early pregnancy -- in-person despite the fact that it can be taken at home.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the court should defer to political agencies on such matters.
"The question before us is not whether the requirements for dispensing mifepristone impose an undue burden on a woman's right to an abortion as a general matter. The question is instead whether the District Court properly ordered the Food and Drug Administration to lift those established requirements because of the court's own evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," Roberts wrote.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, stating that U.S. laws have "long singled out abortions for more onerous treatment than other medical procedures that carry similar or greater risks."
"Like many of those laws, maintaining the FDA's in-person requirements for mifepristone during the pandemic not only treats abortion exceptionally, it imposes an unnecessary, irrational and unjustifiable undue burden on women seeking to exercise their right to choose," Sotomayor wrote. "One can only hope that the government will reconsider and exhibit greater care and empathy for women seeking some measure of control over their health and reproductive lives in these unsettling times."
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Justice Stephen Breyer also dissented but did not join Sotomayor's opinion.
In October, before Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court, the Supreme Court rejected a request to lift the injunction, stating "a more comprehensive record" would aid its review and granting the judge who imposed the ban the opportunity to modify it to make it less restrictive.
Supreme Court clears way for Lisa Montgomery to be executed Thursday
Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court late Tuesday cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed.
Lisa Montgomery, 52, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Tuesday at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 2004 killing of a pregnant woman.
But as the hours tick by, the country's highest court considered appeals in multiple cases -- including two in which Montgomery received stays of execution from lower courts.
Shortly before midnight, the Supreme Court issued two orders vacating those stays, decisions Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elean Kagan said they would have left in place.
Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court late Tuesday cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed.
Lisa Montgomery, 52, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Tuesday at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 2004 killing of a pregnant woman.
But as the hours tick by, the country's highest court considered appeals in multiple cases -- including two in which Montgomery received stays of execution from lower courts.
Shortly before midnight, the Supreme Court issued two orders vacating those stays, decisions Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elean Kagan said they would have left in place.
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Kelley Henry, Montgomery's attorney, rebuked the Supreme Court's decision, stating "the craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight."
"Everyone who participated in the execution of Lisa Montgomery should feel shame," she said.
Earlier in the day, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a stay in a case in which her lawyers said the Justice Department violated the Federal Death Penalty Act by rescheduling her execution after she received a stay in November.
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She was originally set for execution on Dec. 8, but two of Montgomery's attorneys who'd filed for clemency were diagnosed with COVID-19, which delayed the execution.
In another ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, a three-judge panel vacated a lower court's stay issued Monday. In that case, her attorneys argued Montgomery wasn't competent to be put to death under the Constitution.
"Mrs. Montgomery has brain damage and severe mental illness that was exacerbated by the lifetime of sexual torture she suffered at the hands of caretakers," Henry said in an emailed statement to UPI last week. "Mrs. Montgomery is mentally deteriorating and we are seeking an opportunity to prove her incompetence."
Montgomery was sentenced to death in 2007 for the 2004 death of Bobbie Jo Stinnett. Prosecutors said Montgomery visited Stinnett's home under the guise of purchasing a puppy. Once there, though, she strangled the woman, who was eight months pregnant, then cut the baby from her body. Montgomery tried to pass the newborn off as her own.
Police later recovered the baby and returned her safe to her father.
Montgomery's supporters said she should be spared the death penalty because she has severe mental illness after experiencing physical, emotional and sexual abuse as a child. They said her mother trafficked her as a teenager.
If executed, Montgomery would be the first person put death in the country this year. She's one of three executions scheduled for this week, including Corey Johnson on Thursday and Dustin Higgs on Friday.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., blocked Johnson and Higgs' executions as they are both recovering from COVID-19.
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