The Supreme Court upholds access to mifepristone in a unanimous decision on abortion

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Women allege unequal pay at Apple, Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to punish private equity firms that strip hospitals, and the Supreme Court is unanimous on the matter of the FDA and mifepristone. Have a restful weekend

- In agreement. It's hard to remember a time when there seemed to be consensus on anything related to abortion—but that's just what happened, at least among the nine Supreme Court justices. In a unanimous decision yesterday, the court rejected a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration's regulation of the abortion pill mifepristone.

The closely watched case had threatened to curtail access to the most widely used form of abortion that has become even more critical as some states drastically limit in-person abortion care. None other than Justice Brett Kavanaugh—who was in the conservative 5-4 majority overturning Roe v. Wade—wrote the court's opinion.

The unanimous decision (not that uncommon—15 of 18 SCOTUS decisions this term were unanimous as of May) came down to the plaintiffs' standing to sue on the issue. “We recognize that many citizens, including the plaintiff doctors here, have sincere concerns about and objections to others using mifepristone and obtaining abortions,” Kavanaugh wrote. “But citizens and doctors do not have standing to sue simply because others are allowed to engage in certain activities—at least without the plaintiffs demonstrating how they would be injured by the government’s alleged under-regulation of others.”

The case, FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, had rallied the pharmaceutical industry, which worried that a decision restricting mifepristone could challenge the approvals process for any drug.

Kavanaugh's opinion recognized the dangerous precedent a different decision would have set. "We decline to start the Federal Judiciary down that uncharted path," he wrote. "That path would seemingly not end until virtually every citizen had standing to challenge virtually every government action that they do not like."

While mifepristone is safe for now, this is hardly the end. Other cases challenging abortion—ones that are unlikely to be unanimously shut down—are likely. As Melinda French Gates responded to the news: "Today’s Supreme Court decision is welcome news, but the fight for reproductive rights is far from over," she wrote on X. "Someone else will file a lawsuit. Another state will pass legislation restricting women’s options. The only way to stop these attacks on women’s autonomy is to make sure that women have the political power to set their own agenda, instead of having their fundamental rights depend on someone else’s."

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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