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U.S. NEWS Thursday 20 april 2023
Supreme Court temporarily extends access to abortion pill

By MARK SHERMAN The appeals court said that
Associated Press the drug can’t be mailed
WASHINGTON (AP) — The or dispensed as a generic
Supreme Court has tempo- and that patients who seek
rarily extended women’s it need to make three in-
access to an abortion pill person visits with a doctor,
until Friday while the justices among other things.
consider whether to allow The generic version of mife-
restrictions on mifepristone pristone makes up two-
to take effect as a legal thirds of the supply in the
challenge to the medica- United States, its manu-
tion’s Food and Drug Ad- facturer, Las Vegas-based
ministration approval con- GenBioPro Inc., wrote in
tinues. In an order signed a court filing that under-
by Justice Samuel Alito on scored the perils of allow-
Wednesday, the court in- ing the restrictions to be put
dicated it will act by Friday into effect.
night. Alito provided no ex- The court also said the drug
planation for why the court should only be approved
put off a more lasting deci- through seven weeks of
sion. The justices had given pregnancy for now, even
themselves a deadline though the FDA since
on Wednesday in a fast- Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, 2016 has endorsed its use
moving case from Texas in Ala., on March 16, 2022. through 10 weeks of preg-
which abortion opponents Associated Press nancy. Complicating the
are seeking to roll back imposed by lower courts, to the drug, is defending the United States. situation, a federal judge
FDA approval mifepristone. at least as long as the legal the rulings in calling on the The abortion opponents in Washington has ordered
used in the most common case makes it way through Supreme Court to let the filed suit in November in the FDA to preserve access
method of abortion in the the courts. They say wom- restrictions take effect now. Amarillo, Texas. The legal to mifepristone under the
United States en who want the drug and The legal fight over abor- challenge quickly reached current rules in 17 Demo-
The drug first won FDA ap- providers who dispense it tion comes less than a year the Supreme Court after a cratic-led states and the
proval in 2000, and condi- will face chaos if limits on after conservative justices federal judge issued a rul- District of Columbia that
tions on its use have been the drug take effect. De- reversed Roe v. Wade and ing on April 7 that would filed a separate lawsuit.
loosened in recent years, pending on what the jus- allowed more than a doz- revoke FDA approval of The Biden administration
including making it avail- tices decide, that could en states to effectively ban mifepristone, one of two has said the rulings conflict
able by mail in states that include requiring women abortion outright. drugs used in medication and create an untenable
allow access. to take a higher dosage of Even as the abortion land- abortions. situation for the FDA.
The Biden administration the drug than the FDA says scape changed dramati- Less than a week later, In an order issued last Friday
and New York-based Dan- is necessary. cally in several states, abor- a federal appeals court by Alito, the court put the
co Laboratories, the maker Alliance Defending Free- tion opponents set their modified the ruling so that restrictions on hold through
of the drug, want the na- dom, representing anti- sights on medication abor- mifepristone would remain Wednesday to give the
tion’s highest court to reject abortion doctors and med- tions, which make up more available while the case court time to consider the
limits on mifepristone’s use ical groups in a challenge than half of all abortions in continues, but with limits. emergency appeal. q

Are Brazilians Hispanic? Many say

‘yes,’ report says

By MIKE SCHNEIDER did so in 2021 years when reau inadvertently failed
Associated Press the coding error wasn’t to make those recoding
A coding error in an annual made. changes for Brazilians, as
survey by the U.S. Census Since 2000, the Census Bu- well as people from Por-
Bureau has offered unprec- reau hasn’t classified Bra- tugal, the Philippines and
edented insight into how zilians and other people non-Spanish speaking
large numbers of Brazilians from non-Spanish speaking countries in Latin American
in the U.S. identify as His- countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, result- An envelope containing a 2020 census letter mailed to a U.S.
resident sits on a desk on on April 5, 2020, in Detroit.
panic or Latino. and the Caribbean as His- ing in an additional 471,000 Associated Press
An analysis by Pew Re- panic because of federal people who identified as
search Center shows that government definitions that Hispanic in 2020 compared number of Brazilians who people.”
the coding mistake re- were last revised in 1997 to 2021, Pew said. self-identified as Hispanic or There were more than
vealed at least 416,000 Bra- but are being reconsidered More than 62 million peo- Latino highlights how their 526,000 Brazilians in the U.S.
zilians, or more than two- for an update next year. ple identified as Hispanic views of their own identity in 2021, with more than a
thirds of Brazilians in the Because of this, if someone in the 2021 American Com- does not necessarily align fifth living in Florida, ac-
U.S., identifying as Hispanic marks that they are His- munity Survey. The survey with official government cording to the American
in the 2020 American Com- panic but Brazilian on the questionnaire asks if some- definitions,” Pew said in a Community Survey. Using
munity Survey. By compari- survey, they are recoded one is Hispanic or not, and report released Wednes- different criteria, the Pew
son, only 14,000 Brazilians as “not Hispanic” when the separately asks what the day. “It also underscores report puts the number
identified that way in 2019, numbers are crunched. respondent’s race is. that being Hispanic means of Brazilians in the U.S. at
and only 16,000 Brazilians In 2020, however, the bu- “In particular, the large different things to different 602,000 people.q