WASHINGTON — In a blow to anti-abortion advocates, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone, meaning the commonly used drug can remain widely available.
The court unanimously found that the group of anti-abortion doctors who questioned FDA decisions facilitating access to birth control pills did not have legal standing to sue.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the court, wrote that while the plaintiffs have “sincere legal, moral, ideological and political objections to elective abortion and to the FDA's relaxed regulation of mifepristone,” that does not mean they have a federal case.
He added that the plaintiffs failed to prove that they suffered any harm, meaning that “the federal courts are the wrong forum to address plaintiffs' concerns about the FDA's actions.”
“Plaintiffs can submit their concerns and objections to the President and FDA in the regulatory process or to Congress and the President in the legislative process,” Kavanaugh wrote. “They may also express their views on abortion and mifepristone to their fellow citizens, including in political and electoral processes.”
The legal challenge was brought by doctors and other medical professionals represented by the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom.
“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court has not found the merits for the FDA to unlawfully overturn common-sense safety standards for abortion drugs,” said Erin Hawley, one of the group's attorneys. She told reporters she hopes the underlying lawsuit will stick because three states — Idaho, Missouri and Kansas — have made their own claims and have different arguments to support them.
By dropping the case on these grounds, the court avoided reaching a decision on the legal grounds for whether the FDA had acted lawfully in lifting various restrictions, including one that makes the drug available by mail, meaning that the same problems could return. To court in 2018. Another case.
Another regulatory decision in place means women can still get the pill within 10 weeks of pregnancy instead of seven.
Likewise, the decision to allow health care providers other than doctors to dispense birth control pills will remain in effect.
The ruling comes two years after the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, overturned the landmark abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade, leading to a wave of new restrictions on abortion in conservative states.
Afterward, the court suggested it was distancing itself from the political debate over abortion, but as litigation over abortion access continues, the justices continue to play a pivotal role.
Abortion rights supporters welcomed the ruling, and Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said she was relieved by the outcome but angry that the case had been stuck in the court system for so long.
“Thank God the Supreme Court rejected this unjustified attempt to limit access to medical abortion, but the fact remains that this baseless case should not have gotten this far,” she said in a statement.
Danco Laboratories, maker of Mifeprex, the commercial version of mifepristone, also praised the ruling, saying it is beneficial to the drug approval process overall.
In rejecting the appeal, the court “preserved the stability of the FDA's drug approval process, which relies on the agency's expertise and on which patients, health care providers and the U.S. pharmaceutical industry rely,” said Abigail Long, a spokeswoman for the company.
Anti-abortion groups expressed disappointment, saying the ruling highlighted the importance of this year's election in which Democratic President Joe Biden, who has pledged to defend abortion rights, faces off against Republican Donald Trump, who has strong support from conservatives who oppose abortion. .
“Joe Biden and the Democrats are hellbent on mandating abortion on demand at any time for any reason, including mail-order abortions, in every state in the country,” said Marjorie Dannenweiser, president of SBA Pro-Life America.
If Trump wins the election, his appointees at the FDA will be in a position to impose new restrictions on mifepristone.
The mifepristone dispute is not the only abortion case currently before the court. It is also scheduled to decide whether Idaho's strict abortion ban prevents doctors in emergency rooms from performing abortions when a pregnant woman experiences serious complications.
Mifepristone is used as part of a two-drug regimen approved by the Food and Drug Administration that is now the most common form of abortion in the United States.
Abortion is already banned in 14 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
The FDA has won the support of the drug industry, which has warned that any second-guessing of the approval process by untrained federal judges could cause chaos and inhibit innovation.
Last year, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Kasmarek issued a sweeping ruling that completely invalidated the FDA's approval of the pill, leading to panic among abortion rights activists that it would be banned nationwide.
The Supreme Court stayed that ruling last April, meaning the pill remained widely available while the lawsuits continued.
In August, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed the scope of Kaczmarek's decision but left in place his conclusion that the FDA's move to lift restrictions starting in 2016 was unlawful.
Both sides appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court. The court in December accepted the Biden administration's appeal defending subsequent FDA decisions, but chose not to hear the challenge to the original approval of mifepristone in 2000.
The Supreme Court focused only on the FDA's subsequent action, including the initial 2021 decision to make the drug available by mail, which was finalized last year.
