In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected efforts by a group of anti-abortion doctors to restrict access to mifepristone, a drug used in the majority of abortions in the United States. The judges of the highest American court ruled that the group Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine did not have standing to act in this case challenging the decisions of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) facilitating access to the abortion pill.
“Under Article III of the Constitution, a plaintiff seeking to make a drug less accessible toother peoples does not have standing to act. Other theories regarding plaintiffs’ standing are also not sufficient. Therefore, plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the FDA’s actions,” wrote Judge Brett Kavanaugh, author of the decision.
Concretely, the decision means that mifepristone remains accessible in all states except the 14 which ban almost all abortions. It represents a major defeat for the anti-abortion movement. But it does not end the case. Because the Supreme Court did not address the question of whether the FDA acted legally in lifting various restrictions on mifepristone, including one allowing the drug to be obtained by mail and another allowing women to obtain the abortion pill in ten weeks of gestation instead of seven.
This decision comes two years after the repeal of the constitutional right to abortion by the same Supreme Court, which had harmful electoral consequences for Republicans.
(Photo Getty Images)
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