US Supreme Court rejects challenge to abortion pill

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled unanimously against a bid to restrict access to a drug used in more than half of the country’s abortions, thwarting the latest attempts to curb the procedure.

In a decision penned by conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh, the high court held that the group of anti-abortion doctors and medical associations who brought the case against the US Food and Drug Administration, which regulates mifepristone, lacked the legal authority to challenge the agency.

Under the US Constitution, “a plaintiff’s desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue”, Kavanaugh wrote.

The doctors and medical associations that brought the case “do not prescribe or use mifepristone. And FDA has not required the plaintiffs to do anything or to refrain from doing anything,” he added.

There has been a wave of abortion cases since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe vs Wade, which had enshrined the constitutional right to an abortion at the federal level for nearly 50 years. Those challengers have become emboldened by the Supreme Court’s conservative tilt in recent years, hoping it would prove receptive to their arguments.

“Today’s decision does not change the fact that the fight for reproductive freedom continues,” the White House said in a statement. “[L]et’s be clear: attacks on medication abortion are part of Republican elected officials’ extreme and dangerous agenda to ban abortion nationwide . . . The stakes could not be higher for women across America”.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed in Texas by a group of anti-abortion advocates alleging that the FDA did not properly approve the drug and had not considered its safety when used by girls younger than 18.

A district judge in Texas suspended regulatory approval for mifepristone granted more than 20 years ago, in effect leading to a nationwide ban. A federal appeals court later paused most of the decision, ultimately reinstating restrictions on the drug that had been progressively eased by the FDA since 2016.

More than half of women who terminate a pregnancy use abortion pills, including mifepristone, and its use has come increasingly into focus as Republican-led states have piled more restrictions on to the procedure after Roe was overturned.

Earlier this year, the drugs were put on sale in major retail pharmacies, including CVS and Walgreens, following an FDA rule change.

The ruling averts a political headache for Republicans leading up to the 2024 election. While they have long championed anti-abortion crackdowns at the state level, the issue has threatened their electoral prospects at the federal level, as they face voters who in large part oppose further limits.

Democrats have in turn used preserving access to abortion to rally voters across the country, and the issue is expected to be one of Donald Trump’s weak points as the presumed Republican nominee for president.

Dick Durbin, the US senator from Illinois who chairs the Senate judiciary committee, was among the Democrats who cheered the high court’s decision, but warned that “radical right-wing judges and extremist Republican elected officials will continue their efforts to strip women of their reproductive freedoms across the nation”. 

Trump has appeared to acknowledge the harm for Republicans in pursuing a tough anti-abortion stance, suggesting he might consider less extreme measures than other members of his party. But he has also boasted about his appointment of three conservative justices — Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch — who were pivotal in reversing Roe.

As the battle over reproductive rights intensifies among lawmakers, Republican senators on Thursday blocked consideration a bill that would protect and expand nationwide access to in vitro fertilisation.

Robert Califf, head of the FDA, said in a social media post that he was “pleased” with the decision, which will leave mifepristone “available under the conditions of use approved by FDA”.

Danco Laboratories, the manufacturer of Mifeprex, the branded version of the drug, said it was pleased the ruling had “maintained the stability of the FDA drug approval process, which is based on the agency’s expertise and on which patients, healthcare providers and the US pharmaceutical industry rely”.