Unanimous Supreme Court preserves access to widely used abortion medication | AP News
By: AP News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously preserved access to a medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year, in the court's first abortion decision since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.
The justices ruled that abortion opponents lacked the legal right to sue over the federal Food and Drug Administration's approval of the medication, mifepristone, and the FDA's subsequent actions to ease access to it.
The case had threatened to restrict access to mifepristone across the country, including in states where abortion remains legal.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the court that "federal courts are the wrong forum for addressing the plaintiffs' concerns about FDA's actions." Kavanaugh was part of the majority to overturn Roe.
The high court is separately considering another abortion case, about whether a federal law on emergency treatment at hospitals overrides state abortion bans in rare emergency cases in which a pregnant patient's health is at serious risk.
More than 6 million people have used mifepristone since 2000. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone and primes the uterus to respond to the contraction-causing effect of a second drug, misoprostol. The two-drug regimen has been used to end a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation.
Health care providers have said that if mifepristone is no longer available or is too hard to obtain, they would switch to using only misoprostol, which is somewhat less effective in ending pregnancies.
President Joe Biden's administration and drug manufacturers had warned that siding with abortion opponents in this case could undermine the FDA's drug approval process beyond the abortion context by inviting judges to second-guess the agency's scientific judgments. The Democratic administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, which makes mifepristone, argued that the drug is among the safest the FDA has ever approved.
The abortion opponents argued in court papers that the FDA's decisions in 2016 and 2021 to relax restrictions on getting the drug were unreasonable and "jeopardize women's health across the nation."
The mifepristone case began five months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. Abortion opponents initially won a sweeping ruling nearly a year ago from U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump nominee in Texas, which would have revoked the drug's approval entirely. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals left intact the FDA's initial approval of mifepristone. But it would reverse changes regulators made in 2016 and 2021 that eased some conditions for administering the drug.
The Supreme Court put the appeals court's modified ruling on hold, then agreed to hear the case, though Justices Samuel Alito, the author of the decision overturning Roe, and Clarence Thomas would have allowed some restrictions to take effect while the case proceeded.
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IMPOSSIBLE! The trump court only votes as directed by the cabal of christian nationalists who control the country. There’s no way the hysterical conspiracy obsessed left wing partisans who told me that could be wrong.
A unanimous ruling the plaintiffs don't have standing to sue. For now the court sidesteps the arguments, but they will return soon enough.
No it won’t. It’s unlikely any plaintiffs will have standing under this opinion. But you can try and name one.
Are saying that states can't ban the use of abortifacients like mifepristone, or are you saying that people won't be able to file suite to block those attempts?
I’m saying no one has standing to overturn the approval of the drug by the fda.
Sure, Sean... I'm saying the anti-choice crowd lost this gamble, but are still trying. The court has only kicked this can down the road. So, yes arguments to ban mifepristone and other abortifacients will end up back in front of the court.
I also saw Thomas did a little virtue signaling in his concurrent opinion.
By who? On what grounds will they have standing after this decision?
Looks like a broken clock can be correct twice a day.
Hey, guys, the news ain't that SCOTUS upheld access to mifepristone. That's actually not a very surprising outcome.
The real news is that this was a unanimous decision. There was no dissent from any of the justices.
The Bidenistas should be rejoicing over this decision because now Biden doesn't need to stumble over the word 'mifepristone'. But Harris will still be giggling over abortion. Come'on, Kamala, give us another of those Clinton nods.
Actually, I think they would have preferred to run against a decision that might have gone the other way.
They only have one real issue and that is "abortion." That decision left them empty.
Pelosi issued a statement that puts the kibosh on that. Pelosi has flatly stated SCOTUS did the 'right thing' for women. However, the unbiased liberal press seems to be pushing the narrative that SCOTUS only rejected the plaintiffs standing (which is accurate) and didn't address the merits of the case. But even that narrative undermines allegations SCOTUS is an activist conservative court.
No doubt Democrats will be scrambling to put an anti-abortion spin on the SCOTUS ruling simply because they got nothing else to run on.
100%. They need to believe they are oppressed.
This is a good decision
Agree, Courts and legislatures should stay in their own lanes, FDA decides safety and effectiveness, Doctors decide if it is necessary. Karens and Kens need to mind their own business. This should have never been entertained at the state level, let alone getting to this point.
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