Today the U.S. Supreme Court released its ruling in the anti-aborion case FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. In a unanimous opinion, the Court ruled that the anti-abortion plaintiffs in this case lacked the standing to sue the FDA over its regulation of mifepristone, the first drug of a two-part safe and effective medical regimen for pregnancy termination. As abortion rights advocates, we welcome this ruling that re-affirms the status quo for mifepristone access in the United States.
As we have stated previously, this case was always about politics, not medical science, evidence, or patient safety. This case should have never made it to our highest court, and we are pleased the nine justices on the Court unanimously recognized that. We know this is not the end of political challenges against medication abortion, but we welcome today’s news from the Court.
The most important takeaway from today’s ruling is that access to medication abortion—a safe, effective, and common procedure—remains the same today as it was prior to this ruling. Due to a recent favorable ruling in a North Carolina case, Bryant v. Stein, patients in North Carolina, particularly in rural areas, will have increased access to medication abortion, and as medication abortion has become a preferred option for patients, we welcome this increase to access!
Today’s case was the first ruling of two abortion cases that were heard at the Court this session. We are still waiting for a Supreme Court ruling in another anti-abortion case, Idaho v. United States. With that case in the wings, having just had the one-year anniversary of North Carolina’s anti-abortion law SB20, and as we come up on the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, we know that anti-abortionists are not done in their efforts to ban all abortion in the country, no exceptions. We have a tremendous opportunity to cast our ballots this November in favor of abortion access and reproductive rights in response to these attacks, and we will never stop fighting for reproductive freedom for all!