The Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit filed against the Food and Drug Administration that challenged the agency’s approach to regulating the abortion pill mifepristone, thereby effectively allowing access to the drug without an in-person consultation.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court permitted doctors to mail the pills to their patients even without an in-person visit. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion on the case, citing lack of standing as the grounds for the decision.
“Under Article III of the Constitution, a plaintiff’s desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue. Nor do the plaintiffs’ other standing theories suffice,” said Kavanaugh, as per a Fox News report.
“The plaintiffs have sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections to elective abortion and to the FDA’s relaxed regulation of mifepristone,” Kavanaugh said.
“But under Article III of the Constitution, those kinds of objections alone do not establish a justiciable case or controversy in federal court,” he added.
The ruling significantly affects anti-abortion advocates. Since the Supreme Court’s conservative wing overturned the landmark case of Roe v. Wade in 2022, this was the first major abortion case to reach the High Court. Anti-abortion doctors filed the appeal, claiming their practices were affected because they needed to treat women who suffered complications from the drug mifepristone.
For a long time, the FDA, together with medical groups, has insisted that the drug is safe for use.
CNN reported that reproductive rights organizations saw the decision as a relief. Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, expressed “both relief and anger about this decision.” Northup said she was glad the lawsuit was rejected, but also believed it should not have reached the Supreme Court.
The director of the American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project, Jennifer Dalven, said that while the decision may be a victory for reproductive rights advocates, it does not signify the end of the struggle, emphasizing that there are still politicians prepared to challenge abortion rights.
