The Supreme Court maintained access to mifepristone in an unanimous decision

One of the biggest cases on the Supreme Court’s spring docket was a case challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, the abortion drug. Right-wing groups are having a field day in recent years, with all of the Trump-appointed judges at the federal level, with those bonkers decisions being codified by the now hard-right-extremist Supreme Court (thanks to Trump-appointed SCOTUS justices). Banning mifepristone was on the far right’s wish list and they’ve been going through the motions at lower levels, getting temporary bans at the state level, all to get the cases kicked up to SCOTUS. Well, SCOTUS heard the case a few months ago and the decision was released on Thursday. Mifepristone is safe. For now. Surprisingly, it was a unanimous decision.

The Supreme Court on Thursday maintained access to a widely available abortion pill, rejecting a bid from a group of anti-abortion organizations and doctors to undo the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug. In a unanimous decision, written by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the court held that the anti-abortion groups lacked a direct stake in the dispute, a requirement to challenge the F.D.A.’s approval of the pill, mifepristone.

“The plaintiffs do not prescribe or use mifepristone,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote. “And F.D.A. is not requiring them to do or refrain from doing anything.”

He added, “A plaintiff ’s desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue.”

The case originally sought to erase the F.D.A.’s approval of mifepristone. But by the time it reached the Supreme Court, the question had been narrowed to whether the agency had acted legally in 2016 and 2021, when it broadened distribution of the pill, eventually including telemedicine and mail options.

The ruling handed a muted victory to abortion rights groups. Even as they praised the decision for averting severe restrictions on the availability of the pill, they warned that the outcome could be short-lived. Anti-abortion groups vowed to press ahead, promising that the fight was far from over and raising the possibility that other plaintiffs, states in particular, would mount challenges to the drug.

The ruling did not affect separate restrictions on the pill in more than a dozen states that have passed near-total bans on abortion since the court eliminated a constitutional right to the procedure in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. (The bans do not distinguish between medication and surgical abortion.)

[From The NY Times]

This is a technicality which even the most compromised boneheads of the Supreme Court could not overlook. They can’t just say “the FDA needs to stop distribution of an abortive drug based on vibes.” The right-wing group has zero standing and the FDA did their due diligence when they approved mifepristone years ago. Make no mistake though, abortion, reproductive rights, contraception and IVF are absolutely on the ballot this year, as they’ve been on the ballot for the past fifty years. Don’t get complacent about this sh-t like voters were in 2016. That complacency is the whole reason we’re still dealing with the long-term catastrophe of Trump-appointed judges and an empowered extremist right-wing.

A few more things about SCOTUS – the Senate just found that Republican megadonor Harlan Crow gave Clarence Thomas even more private flights and vacations than originally reported. And Samuel Alito thinks America needs to “return” to a “place of godliness.” Can these a–holes please be thrown off the court? Jesus Christ.

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