WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision in Food and Drug Administration (FDA), et al. v. the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM) et al. regarding the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decisions in 2016 and 2021 to loosen regulations of the abortion drug mifepristone and whether the challengers had standing to bring their case.

The Court unanimously ruled that the challenger in the case, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, did not have standing. The Court did not rule on whether or not the FDA had acted properly in removing previous safeguards. Because the decision is based on standing, the FDA regulations on mifepristone remain. 

“Women remain unprotected from common complications with the abortion drug such as hemorrhage, infection, and failure to identify rupturing ectopic pregnancies in a timely manner,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Tracking these complications became more difficult in 2016 when the FDA decided that medical personnel and facilities do not need to report complications arising from the use of the abortion pill mifepristone.” 

“It is sad that because of these FDA decisions, women will not get the information they deserve before making a permanent life or death decision,” continued Tobias. “While the abortion pill remains legal, we hope this battle to reinstate safety precautions will continue.” 

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research arm of the abortion industry, approximately 63% of all abortions are done using chemical abortion methods like mifepristone and misoprostol.

Mifepristone is used in combination with misoprostol, a prostaglandin, to cause an abortion. Mifepristone blocks progesterone, leading to the death of the unborn baby, while the second drug, misoprostol, causes powerful, painful uterine contractions to expel the dead or dying baby.

Under the Biden Administration, the FDA weakened the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) requirements for the drug combination to allow it to be dispensed and even mailed by pharmacies.

Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon, National Right to Life’s Director of Education and Research, addressed the claims of studies demonstrating mifepristone safety in the article, Mifepristone Complications Less Than One Percent? The article can be found here.

In September 2023, National Right to Life released a white paper entitled What the Media Missed in Its Coverage of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Decision Regarding Mifepristone which addressed many of the issues that were before the Fifth Circuit and came before the U.S. Supreme Court. That special report can be accessed here.

A factsheet about the safety and efficacy of mifepristone can be found here.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.