Supreme Court unanimously concludes that anti-abortion groups have no standing to challenge access to mifepristone

Activists on both sides of the abortion battle are gearing up for it to be a major issue in the 2024 election. Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images – but the drug likely faces more court challenges by Naomi Cahn, University of Virginia and Sonia Suter, George Washington University On June 13, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously decided to uphold access to mifepristone, one of two pills used in medication abortion. Mifepristone has long been used safely and effectively in medication abortions around the world. Shortly after the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned 50 years of abortion rights, anti-abortion groups and doctors challenged the Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of mifepristone and its loosened regulations on how mifepristone is prescribed, arguing that it could not be used safely. The Conversation asked professors of law Naomi Cahn and Sonia Suter to explain how the Supreme Court case came about and what the ruling means for access to abortion pills and abortion more generally. How did this case get to the court? In Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the plaintiffs argued that the FDA had not adequately tested mifepristone for safety. They also claimed...