Supreme Court rejects challenge to mifepristone, a medication used in abortion

An attempt to severely limit access to the abortion medication mifepristone has been unanimously rejected by the US Supreme Court.

Two years after the court struck down the right to an abortion as a national guarantee, the ruling represents a significant victory for pro-choice advocates. The plaintiffs were a group of physicians and activists who opposed abortion, and the court ruled that they lacked standing to file a lawsuit. One of the two medications used in a medication abortion—which is now the most popular way to end pregnancies in the US—is mifepristone.

The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the plaintiffs, had maintained that the drug's government approval ought to be revoked. However, many of the court's seven justices were doubtful during the case's March arguments that any of the plaintiffs had experienced injury as a result of mifepristone's availability, which is required in order to have the legal standing to suit. The court said in their conclusion that while the plaintiffs "had sincere legal, moral, and ideological objections to elective abortion and to FDA's relaxed regulation," "they failed to demonstrate" any real harm.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, therefore eliminating the legal right to an abortion. Since then, abortion rights have been restricted in 21 states, surpassing the threshold it established. Out of them, seventeen have declined the treatment at six weeks or less. The use of mail-order tablets for medication abortion has grown to be a popular and efficient way to get past such restrictions. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the use of the two-drug combination in 2000 for usage up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. Misoprostol is given to the patient to empty the uterus after mifepristone is used to induce an abortion.

Since 2016, the FDA has made the medication easier to get, let physicians to see patients virtually, and authorized prescriptions to be issued by mail. Both misoprostol and mifepristone are safe to use, according to the FDA, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG), and other major medical organizations, after 20 years of usage. According to US research, medication abortion is around 95% successful in terminating a pregnancy and only needs further medical monitoring less than 1% of the time.