Supreme Court rules in abortion medication case, finds group lacked standing to challenge FDA approval

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulatory approval process of the abortion drug mifepristone, in the latest abortion case since the landmark decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade. 

In a victory for the Biden administration and abortion rights supporters, the high court gave a unanimous decision that challengers to the FDA lacked standing to sue the government. 

“Under Article III of the Constitution, a plaintiff’s desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue. Nor do the plaintiffs’ other standing theories suffice,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote, who authored the unanimous opinion.

“The plaintiffs have sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections to elective abortion and to FDA’s relaxed regulation of mifepristone,” he said. “But under Article III of the Constitution, those kinds of objections alone do not establish a justiciable case or controversy in federal court.” 

KEY STUDY IN FDA ABORTION PILL CASE AT THE SUPREME COURT WAS RETRACTED IN ‘PARTISAN ASSAULT’ AUTHORS SAY

Protesters gather in the wake of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

“Here, the plaintiffs have 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,” he said. 

“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. And they may also express their views about abortion and mifepristone to fellow citizens, including in the political and electoral processes,” he wrote.

In March, the justices heard about 90 minutes of arguments about federal government regulations since 2016 that made access to mifepristone easier, including access by mail.

Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Womens Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022.  (Getty Images)

In overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee the right to an abortion and that the matter may be decided by the states.

In the aftermath, 14 states have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions, and two others have banned abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is at around six weeks of gestation. 

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The Biden administration and the maker of mifepristone asked the Court to reverse an appellate ruling that would cut off access to the drug through the mail and impose other restrictions, even in states where abortion remains legal. 

The restrictions would have included shortening from the current 10 weeks to seven weeks, the time during which mifepristone can be used in pregnancy.