The Supreme Court has decided to uphold federal approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, for now
The Supreme Court ’s ruling on technical grounds Thursday keeps the abortion pill mifepristone available in the U.S. for now, but it won’t be the last word on the issue, and the unanimous opinion offers some clues for how abortion opponents can keep trying to deny it to women nationwide.
Some state attorneys general have indicated that they’ll press ahead, though they haven’t laid out exactly how.
And while the ruling said the anti-abortion doctors who brought the lawsuit failed to show they’ve been harmed when others use the drug, that might not stop some other plaintiff from a successful challenge.
“The decision is good that the doctors don’t have standing,” said Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, director of Aid Access, an abortion pill supplier working with U.S. providers. “The problem is, the decision should have said that nobody has standing in this case – that only the women have standing.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion even provides a road map for people with “sincere concerns about and objections to others using mifepristone and obtaining abortions.”
“Citizens and doctors who object to what the law allows others to do may always take their concerns to the Executive and Legislative Branches and seek greater regulatory or legislative restrictions on certain activities,” he wrote.
That route would be more likely to work for them if Republican Donald Trump is elected president in November than if Joe Biden remains in office.
The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine sued the Food and Drug Administration in 2022, a few months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the nationwide right to abortion. Most GOP-controlled states had implemented new bans or limits on abortion by then.
