OAN’s James Meyers
9:06 AM – Thursday, June 13, 2024
The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously rejected a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone, meaning the abortion pill can remain on the market.
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In a 9 to 0 ruling authored by Justice Brett Kavanuagh, the high court concluded the group of pro-life doctors that brought the case forward lacked standing to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) prior regulatory approval of the pill.
“Those standing allegations suffer from the same problem—a lack of causation. The causal link between FDA’s regulatory actions and those alleged injuries is too speculative or otherwise too attenuated to establish standing,” Kavanaugh wrote in his opinion.
With the court’s decision, it avoided reaching a decision on the legal merits of whether the FDA acted lawfully in lifting various restrictions, including one making the drug obtainable via mail, which means the possibility of the same issues could return in another court case.
The legal challenge was brought by doctors and other medical professionals represented by the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom.
In 2023, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a ruling that invalidated the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill, which caused abortion activists to believe it would be banned nationwide.
However, last April the Supreme Court put that ruling on hold, meaning the pill remained widely available while litigation continued.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in August then mitigated Kacsmaryk’s decision but ruled that the FDA’s move to lift restrictions starting in 2016 was unlawful.
Meanwhile, the latest ruling will still allow health care providers and abortion clinics to dispense the pill.
The ruling comes two years after the court overturned the landmark case of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Additionally, the Supreme Court will decide on another case in Idaho that prevents doctors in emergency rooms from performing abortions when a pregnant woman is facing life-threatening complications.
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