Supreme Court Makes Major Unanimous Decision
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down an appeal from pro-life activists seeking to restrict national access to an abortion drug that critics claim violates state-level restrictions that entirely outlaw the procedure.
Fox News reported on the landmark decision, which found that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the authority to approve the use of mifepristone, a drug that induces abortion, in cases where women are medically qualified to receive treatment yet live in states outlawing abortion through any means. Pro-life advocates and officials in Texas challenged the FDA’s 2022 guidance, but the high court ruled that they lacked standing to bring the suit.
“Under Article III of the Constitution, a plaintiff’s desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue. Nor do the plaintiffs’ other standing theories suffice,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote, who authored the unanimous opinion. “The plaintiffs have sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections to elective abortion and to FDA’s relaxed regulation of mifepristone,” he said. “But under Article III of the Constitution, those kinds of objections alone do not establish a justiciable case or controversy in federal court.”
“Here, the plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that FDA’s relaxed regulatory requirements likely would cause them to suffer an injury in fact. For that reason, the federal courts are the wrong forum for addressing the plaintiffs’ concerns about FDA’s actions,” he said. “The plaintiffs may present their concerns and objections to the President and FDA in the regulatory process, or to Congress and the President in the legislative process. And they may also express their views about abortion and mifepristone to fellow citizens, including in the political and electoral processes,” he wrote.
In March, justices listened as both sides petitioned arguments over whether the FDA has the authority to usurp state laws outlawing the mailing of mifepristone to women seeking abortion. According to the New York Times, twenty-one states have implemented restrictions to the procedure earlier in pregnancy that were protected under Roe v. Wade, which was abolished in 2022. Fox added that 14 of these states have banned abortion in all or most cases, while two others have banned abortion upon detection of a fetal heartbeat, which typically takes place around the sixth week of pregnancy.
The ruling comes one day after former President Donald Trump appeared before the heavily conservative annual conference of the Southern Baptist church where some of the most fervent pro-life activists in the country are seeking reassurance that the Republican will continue to support favorable policies if he returns to the White House. Rather than appear in person, Trump opted for a two-minute video where he did not mention the word “abortion,” and just months earlier advocated for Republicans to protect the practice of in-vitro fertilization, a procedure the Southern Baptist church announced its opposition to at the meeting.
