The Latest Breaking News from Jennifer Dalven

US supreme court has preserved access to mifespristone for now, but blue states announce plans to safeguard abortion rights

Washington (AFP) - The US Supreme Court on Friday temporarily preserved access to a widely used abortion pill, freezing rulings by lower courts that would have banned or severely restricted availability of the drug.

Moves by the Biden administration to expand access to a drug first approved in 2000 have spawned multiple lawsuits.

Abortion remains legal in Illinois. But, in other states, the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade has set off a frenzy of legal activity.

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that abortion is not a constitutional right, federal and state courts around the country saw a rush of activity as abortion rights advocates raised new legal challenges and states sought judges’ clearance to limit abortions

In scathing, dismissive language, Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote a draft opinion that does what for many decades seemed unimaginable — it overturns the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade and annihilates the constitutionally protected right of a woman to control her own body. If the leaked…