Supreme Court Unanimously Upholds Access to Mifepristone Abortion Pill

The United States Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to the Food and Drug Administration's regulation of mifepristone, an abortion pill, upholding access to the drug.

Detail: In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled the challengers, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, lacked standing to bring the case by not demonstrating sufficient harm stemming from the FDA’s approval of the drug in 2000. 

Key Quotes: Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated to the court by former President Donald Trump, wrote the decision, stating that the challengers “failed to demonstrate that FDA's relaxed regulatory requirements likely would cause them to suffer an injury in fact,” adding, “For that reason, the federal courts are the wrong forum for addressing the plaintiffs' concerns about FDA's actions. 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.” Abigail Long, a spokesperson for Danco, the manufacturer of mifepristone, stated, “We are pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision in this incredibly important case. By rejecting the Fifth Circuit’s radical, unprecedented and unsupportable interpretation of who has standing to sue, the justices reaffirmed longstanding basic principles of administrative law.”

How the Media Covered It: Outlets across the spectrum framed the ruling as a victory for the Biden Administration, which has championed access to abortions. The Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias) emphasized that the ruling did not address the FDA’s regulation of mifepristone but simply rejected the standing of this specific challenge.