The US Supreme Court on Friday ruled to block lower-court orders that would have put restrictions on access to abortion pill mifepristone nationwide. The vote came in response to a request by the Justice Department and the case will now proceed to the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mifepristone is used with another drug called misoprostol as one of the most common methods to terminate a pregnancy in the United States. It had become a talking point after the Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark judgement that made abortion a constitutional right.

Also Read | Shannen Doherty and husband Kurt Iswarienko file for divorce: Here are details

Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming are among the US states where abortion is still legal, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

The Supreme Court order on Friday has put a stay on all restrictions on mifepristone. The drug’s manufacturer Danco Laboratories had appealed the lower courts’ decision.

President Joe Biden, highlighting his administration and Democrats’ victory in the Supreme Court order, tweeted: “Today, the Supreme Court stayed a decision that would have undermined FDA’s medical judgment and put women’s health at risk. As a result, mifepristone, an FDA-approved drug for medication abortion, remains available and approved.”

The case will be heard by the appeals court on Wednesday, May 17.

“I continue to stand by FDA’s evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and my Administration will continue to defend FDA’s independent, expert authority to review, approve, and regulate a wide range of prescription drugs,” Biden said.

How did the Justices vote?

The US Supreme Court has a conservative majority. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas opposed the stay decision on Friday.

All others voted in favour and mifepristone’s access was retained in a 7-2 vote ratio.

Also Read | Why Jimmie Allen and wife Alexis Gale are getting a divorce when the latter is pregnant

In his dissent, Alito said he voted to deny the request for a stay. He said that allowing the restrictions to remain would not lead to “any real harm during the presumably short period at issue.”

“The Government has not dispelled legitimate doubts that it would even obey an unfavorable order in these cases, much less that it would choose to take enforcement action to which it has strong objections,” Alito wrote.