The Supreme Court finally released their opinion regarding the legality of access to mifepristone, one of the drugs used in 2/3 of abortions nationwide. For now, the drug remains legal and available - not because they support it, though. Rather it is because the case was brought by doctors and dentists who "lack standing."
Lacking standing means "the party cannot show harm, the party does not have standing and is not the right party to be appearing before the court."
The hearing did not go well for the far right justices, who appeared to lack a fundamental understanding of the science behind it all.
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to limit access to a widely used abortion medication, rejecting a challenge from antiabortion doctors two years after the court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade on procedural grounds.
In a unanimous ruling, the court sided with the Biden administration and the manufacturer of mifepristone and reversed a lower court decision that would have made it more difficult to obtain the drug used in more than 60 percent of U.S. abortions. The ruling was not on the substance of the case, but on a procedural ruling that the plaintiffs did not have legal grounds to bring the case.
Writing for the court, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said the antiabortion doctors who brought the challenge do not prescribe or use mifepristone, and the FDA’s relaxed regulation of the medication does not require those doctors to do or refrain from doing anything.
“Rather, the plaintiffs want FDA to make mifepristone more difficult for other doctors to prescribe and for pregnant women to obtain,” Kavanaugh wrote. Under the Constitution, he added, a group’s “desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue.
The far right forced birthers have been gunning to ban mifepristone because it can be sent via mail to states that have enacted full, or almost full, bans on legal abortions. The original case was brought by antiabortion doctors who sued the FDA, claiming the agency did not adequately consider safety concerns when it loosened restrictions regarding access to mifepristone in 2016.
Mifepristone was approved by the FDA in 2000 after research showed it to be safe and effective. It is most often used in conjunction with another drug, misoprostol, and it combination has proven to be a safe and effective abortion option. It is currently the most common abortion protocol, used in approximately 2/3 of abortions.
The opinion was 9-0 with Kavanaugh writing it, but that does not mean the 6 conservative justices agreed with it. They just found that the challengers did not have standing.
Read the ruling here.
UPDATE: The Biden-Harris campaign released a long statement warning that this is just the beginning. This paragraph is important, because Project 2025 mandates complete abortion bans.
Trump’s campaign has desperately tried to paper over his unpopular anti-reproductive freedom agenda, but it’s clear Trump will do exactly as Project 2025 outlines and ban medication abortion nationwide. Trump has notably refused to say what his position is on mifepristone. Project 2025 was developed in close collaboration with high-ranking Trump advisors, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows and senior advisor Stephen Miller. Former Trump Health and Human Services official Roger Severino authored the plans to ban medication abortion nationally. And critically, Trump’s allies and former staff believe that he will ban abortion nationwide:
