The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously ruled to allow mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortion, to remain available. The court rejected a lawsuit brought by a group of doctors challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) decisions to relax various regulatory requirements around mifepristone, finding that the plaintiffs did not have any legal basis to sue.
The ruling reversed a lower court decision that would have made it more difficult to obtain the drug. It leaves in place, for now, federal regulations allowing patients around the country to obtain the pills online and through the mail.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade and turned over the regulation of abortion back to the states two years ago, many states have enacted near-total bans on all forms of abortion or restrictions on the medicated abortion pills. This has led many patients to rely on telehealth and mail-order pharmacies to obtain mifepristone.
The Supreme Court’s decision did not address the underlying regulatory or safety issues the plaintiffs raised. The ruling does not prevent future administrations from rolling back access to mifepristone; it merely holds that this group of doctors have not suffered the sort of harm from the FDA’s current policies that would allow them to sue in federal court.
