The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that women seeking abortions via medication must pick up the pills in person from a hospital or licensed provider, reinstating a requirement eliminated by a federal judge in 2020. The federal judge, Theodore Chuang, had ruled that an in-person visit during the coronavirus pandemic placed an undue burden on abortion access. Justice John Roberts, siding with the SCOTUS majority, disputed that view and said Chuang should not have overruled the FDA on the requirement, which governs medication-induced abortions permitted in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The decision is the court’s first ruling on abortion since the confirmation of conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissenting, wrote that requiring in-person pickup “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.”
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