Supreme Court dismisses challenge against mifepristone
The Supreme Court threw out the challenge against the abortion medication mifepristone after justices agreed the case lacked a legitimate basis.
WASHINGTON − President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice urged a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging access to the abortion drug mifepristone, a move that aligns with the Biden administration’s defense of the drug.
In a court brief filed April 5, the Trump administration did not debate the legality of the pill or defend its use in almost two-thirds of pregnancy terminations in the U.S.
Rather, the Justice Department contended that the suit should be dismissed, or at least filed in a different district court, for procedural reasons.
The Supreme Court last summer threw out an attempt by anti-abortion doctors to reverse the FDA’s loosening of rules around mifepristone prescriptions. The high court determined the plaintiffs lacked a legitimate basis to sue.
The group of doctors then dropped their challenge, but attorneys general in Missouri, Kansas and Idaho stepped in to continue the case. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has been friendly to abortion-related challenges, allowed the states to intervene and is considering their case in North Texas.
Lawyers for the government argued in the latest filing that Kacsmaryk’s court is not the proper venue for the states’ challenge.
“(The) States do not dispute that their claims have no connection to the Northern District of Texas,” they wrote.
“The States are free to pursue their claims in a District where venue is proper,” lawyers added, “but the States’ claims before this Court must be dismissed or transferred.”
The Justice Department also pushed back on Missouri, Kansas and Idaho’s claims that they are being harmed by the federal regulations.
The three states are challenging FDA actions that loosened restrictions on the drug in 2016 and 2021, including allowing for medication abortions at up to 10 weeks of pregnancy instead of seven, and for mail delivery of the drug without a woman first seeing a clinician in-person.
The Republican-led states have argued they have a legitimate basis to sue because their Medicaid health insurance programs will likely have to pay to treat patients who suffer complications from using mifepristone.
They have also said their suit should remain in Texas even without the original plaintiffs because it would be inefficient to send the case to another court after nearly more than two years of litigation.
First approved in 2000, mifepristone has helped fuel an increase in abortions in recent years, despite the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. Use of the drug rose after the FDA said the pill could be safely prescribed in a telehealth consultation, allowing women in states where abortion is legal and where it is not to access mifepristone.
Under former President Joe Biden, the Department of Justice first moved to dismiss Missouri, Kansas and Idaho’s challenge.
Trump, who has touted his role in appointing conservative justices who overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, said during his 2024 campaign he did not plan to ban or restrict access to mifepristone.
Contributing: Daniel Wiessner, Reuters; Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY