Supreme Court maintains broad access to abortion pill
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday maintained access to a widely available abortion pill, rejecting a bid from a group of anti-abortion organizations and doctors to undo the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug.
In a unanimous decision, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the court held that the anti-abortion groups lacked a direct stake in the dispute, a requirement to challenge the FDA’s approval of the pill, mifepristone.
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“The plaintiffs do not prescribe or use mifepristone,” Kavanaugh wrote. “And FDA is not requiring them to do or refrain from doing anything.”
He added: “A plaintiff’s desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue.”
The case originally sought to erase the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. But by the time it reached the Supreme Court, the question had been narrowed to whether the agency had acted legally in 2016 and 2021, when it broadened distribution of the pill, eventually including telemedicine and mail options.
The ruling handed a muted victory to abortion rights groups. Even as they praised the decision for averting severe restrictions on the availability of the pill, they warned that the outcome could be short-lived.
Anti-abortion groups vowed to press ahead, promising that the fight was far from over and raising the possibility that other plaintiffs, states in particular, would mount challenges to the drug.
The ruling did not affect separate restrictions on the pill in more than a dozen states that have passed near-total bans on abortion since the court eliminated a constitutional right to the procedure in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. (The bans do not distinguish between medication and surgical abortion.)
By dodging a ruling on the substance of the case, the justices avoided delivering a clear, substantive win to either political party or a decision they could use to motivate their base.
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