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The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld access to a widely available abortion pill, rejecting a bid from a group of anti-abortion organizations and doctors to unravel the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the pill. In a unanimous decision, written by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the court held that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the F.D.A.’s actions. The challenge to the availability of mifepristone, a medication used in a majority of abortions in the country, reflected one of the latest fronts over abortion access. The case had returned the abortion issue back to the Supreme Court, even as the conservative majority, in overturning Roe v. Wade, declared that it would cede the question “to the people and their elected representatives.” (VanSickle, 6/13)

The lead plaintiff, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, argued on behalf of anti-abortion rights doctors that those regulations were unsound. The Biden administration defended the FDA's process in court as being supported by science and decades of safe use. But much of the March 25 arguments centered on the question of legal standing, and the court concluded the pill's challengers "failed to demonstrate that FDA's relaxed regulatory requirements likely would cause them to suffer an injury in fact." "For that reason, the federal courts are the wrong forum for addressing the plaintiffs' concerns about FDA's actions," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote. "The plaintiffs may present their concerns and objections to the President and FDA in the regulatory process, or to Congress and the President in the legislative process." (Dwyer, 6/13)

The ruling leaves open the possibility of a renewed attack on mifepristone by other opponents. After the Supreme Court agreed to take up the case, US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said a Missouri-led group of states could intervene at the district court level to help press the challenge. The states contend they have standing to sue even if the doctors don’t. (Stohr, 6/13)

The ruling comes two years after the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, overturned the landmark abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade, which led to a wave of new abortion restrictions in conservative states. Then, the court suggested it was removing itself from the political debate over abortion, but with litigation continuing to rage over abortion access, the justices are continuing to play a pivotal role. The mifepristone dispute is not the only abortion case currently before the court. It is also due to decide whether Idaho’s strict abortion ban prevents doctors in emergency rooms from performing abortions when a pregnant woman is facing dangerous complications. (Hurley, 6/13)

The decision does not foreclose other challenges targeting mifepristone, but it means that the FDA's recent steps that made the drug easier to obtain will remain in place. Those actions included allowing mifepristone to be taken later into a pregnancy, expanding the health care workers who can prescribe it, and lifting an in-person dispensing requirement so the pill can be sent through the mail. (Quinn, 6/13)