Supreme Court unanimously rejects challenge of abortion drug

Update, 3:15 p.m.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Erin Hawley expressed disappointment in the Supreme Court’s ruling against pro-life doctors challenging the abortion drug mifepristone. The Court’s decision did not change the fact that 1 in 25 women who take mifepristone will afterward find themselves in a hospital’s emergency room, she said. The ruling also did not change the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration endangered women and girls by allowing them to take the drugs without medical supervision, Hawley said. The Alliance Defending Freedom would continue to advocate for restoring protections for women and girls, she said.

Initial post:

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected a group of pro-life doctors’ challenge to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone. The Court held that the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine did not have the legal standing to challenge the FDA’s approval for the drug.

What’s this case about? The pro-life doctors had challenged the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone. It said that the agency cut corners in the approval process for the drug and overlooked the harm it could cause to women. The pro-life doctors had argued that they had standing to challenge the FDA’s approval because they could find themselves forced to perform emergency abortions in violation of their beliefs. They argued that such cases could arise if any of their patients used the drug and suffered serious complications. The Court ruled that those concerns did not provide the pro-life doctors standing to sue. Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored the majority opinion, and Justice Clarence Thomas authored a concurring opinion.

Dig deeper: Read Leah Savas’ report in Vitals about how states could challenge the FDA’s approval of mifepristone even after the Supreme Court’s decision.