Rarely has a straightforward 9-to-0 decision at the Supreme Court felt as unsettling as it did on [June 13, 2024].
The justices’ unanimous ruling, in F.D.A. v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, rejected a challenge to the most commonly used abortion pill, but it did so only on procedural grounds, without considering the merits of the lawsuit. That means another challenge to the drug, mifepristone, will probably reach the court before long. Based on the right-wing supermajority’s open hostility to reproductive rights, there’s good reason to worry.
Because they oppose abortion, the doctors neither use nor prescribe mifepristone, and the F.D.A. hasn’t required them to do or not do anything. The doctors could not even show a single instance in which they were forced to perform an abortion or even provide abortion-related services against their will.
Related on the SLP
The plaintiffs’ moral opposition to abortion may be genuine, the court conceded, but they are already protected by federal and state laws that allow them to refuse to participate in any procedure that goes against their conscience. In that light, a “desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote.
