
Left: Associate Justice Clarence Thomas sits during a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool). Right: Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh stands during a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, on April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool).
In a unanimous decision issued Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an advocacy group representing anti-abortion doctors lacked standing to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of mifepristone, more commonly known as the “abortion pill.”
As Law&Crime reported during oral arguments this March, the justices did not appear keen to side with anti-abortion doctors at the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, or AHM, who argued that the drug should be completely removed from the market because of their personal beliefs about the drug, its purpose or its safety.
The drug was first approved by the FDA in 2000. Regulatory requirements enforced by the agency were relaxed in 2016 and then again in 2021, each time making it easier for doctors as well as pregnant people to obtain the drug. Specifically, in 2021, the FDA announced it would no longer force patients to appear in person to get a prescription for mifepristone after it reviewed safety data from pregnant women who used it during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When a lawsuit landed before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, he ordered the FDA to revoke its approval for the drug in 2023.