The Supreme Court agreed Dec. 13 to look at a dispute over the availability of a commonly used abortion pill, mifepristone, making it the first abortion case it will hear since its decision overturning Roe v. Wade last year.
Justice Department
Burlington Catholic Leader ‘Shocked’ by Shooting of Palestinian College Students
After three college students of Palestinian descent were shot in Burlington, Vermont, over the weekend in a potential hate crime, the interim head of the local diocese condemned the act and reminded Catholics that they are called to “become peacemakers in our cities, state, and in our world.”
Despite FDA Safety Claims, Abortion Pill Opponents Concerned Increase Use Will Lead to More Women Harmed by Complication
Chemical abortion in the form of the “abortion pill” now accounts for 54% of U.S. abortions in 2022, up from 39% in 2017, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization with historical ties to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
FDA Faces Skeptical Questioning From Federal Judges Over Abortion Pill
In a two-hour hearing on May 17 looking at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decades-old approval of an abortion pill, federal judges seemed to have a harsher line of questioning for attorneys for the federal government and the drug maker, indicating they might be sympathetic to those challenging the drug’s availability.
Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Lower Court Rulings Restricting Abortion Pills Amid Legal Challenge
The U.S. Supreme Court said April 14 it would temporarily keep in place status quo federal regulations regarding the use of an abortion drug, giving the court additional time to consider a lower court’s ruling to stay the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug.
Justice Department Drops Conscience Case; Move Called ‘Dereliction’ of Duty
The chairmen of the U.S. bishops’ religious liberty and pro-life committees said Aug. 12 that the U.S. Department of Justice “is acting in dereliction of its duty to enforce the plain meaning of federal law” by voluntarily dismissing a civil lawsuit against a hospital that forced nurses to assist in elective abortions against their religious beliefs.
Setting of Execution Dates for Federal Death-Row Prisoners Denounced
Critics of the death penalty denounced the decision June 15 by Attorney General William Barr to set execution dates for four federal prisoners on death row.