Justice Department asks Supreme Court to end abortion pill legal challenge that threatens widespread access

The Biden administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to maintain broad access to a commonly used medication abortion pill.

The court filing from the Justice Department sets the stage for a possible final resolution to a contentious legal fight mounted by abortion rights opponents over federal approval of the drug mifepristone. The dispute lands at the Supreme Court in time for the justices to potentially take it up, hear oral arguments and issue a decision by next summer.

In urging the Supreme Court to intervene, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote that the case marked the first time a court has ever second-guessed the "expert judgment" of the FDA in approving a drug.

If lower court rulings were left in place, they "would impose grave harms on the government, mifepristone’s sponsors, women seeking medication abortions, and the public," Prelogar added. Among other things, access to the pill by mail — which the FDA formally approved in 2021 — would be curtailed.

Danco — the maker of Mifeprex, the brand version of mifepristone — filed a similar appeal Friday.

For more on this story, go to NBC News.