# How could the Scotus decision on access to mifepristone affect access to other medications? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 15, 2023, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639 "2023-12-15T15:57:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/21 "2023-12-16T17:44:34Z")
In the not too distant future, after the single-party Theocracy has been permanently established, I could see the Holy Supreme Court rule that Thoughts and Prayers are the only acceptable medical treatment, and the new law that orders all doctors be sent to the camps is constitutional. I exaggerate. I hope. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/22 "2024-06-13T14:36:23Z")
For now, the Supreme Court has allowed the FDA to continue to regulate mifepristone. The decision was unanimous, based around the fact that the plaintiffs did not have standing, having not proven any damages sustained > **[Supreme Court rejects challenge to FDA's approval of mifepristone](https://www.npr.org/2024/06/05/nx-s1-4994407/supreme-court-mifepristone)** > > The court said that the challengers, a group called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, had no right to be in court at all since neither the organization nor its members could show they had suffered any concrete injury. > The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday tossed out a challenge to the [FDA’s rules for prescribing and dispensing abortion pills](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/26/1240915498/supreme-court-abortion-pill). By a unanimous vote, the court said the anti-abortion doctors who brought the challenge had failed to show they had been harmed, as they do not prescribe the medication, and thus, essentially, had no skin in the game. Of course, that just means some dipshits are going to be looking for some other way to show standing. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/23 "2024-06-13T16:07:42Z")
At first I saw the headline that it was 9-0. I thought maybe Clarence Thomas was a real boy after all. But alas, it’s just a matter of standing. But how did the appeals court reason that the plaintiffs had standing? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/24 "2024-06-13T16:27:21Z")
With this Supreme Court, a punt is about the best we could have hoped for. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/25 "2024-06-13T16:30:32Z")
A court finding of no standing is basically never surprising, because it gives the court an opportunity to say “Go away”, without having to take any sort of stand on anything. It’s a very human trait to not want to have to do anything one might be held accountable for. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/26 "2024-06-13T16:37:59Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Of course, that just means some dipshits are going to be looking for some other way to show standing. Exactly. No one should take comfort from this ruling. The door is wide open for another attack on medication abortion and any other drug the SCOTUS decides legislators should determine should not be allowed. Their ultimate goal is to take these decisions to partisan legislators who are pandering to certain of their Christian supporters and remove any role of medical expertise or non-partisan standards imposed by the FDA. Me? I don’t want the likes of Matt Gaetz or Rand Paul or Ron DeSantis or Ted Cruz in charge of decisions I or my loved ones may need to make in consultation with our doctors. But that’s where we’re headed if Republicans ever, ever, ever get control over House, Senate and presidency. They’re just lying in wait. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/27 "2024-06-13T16:46:36Z")
AIUI, if there’s no standing, then a court **must** dismiss for that reason, do not pass “go”, do not collect $200. Because then moving on to the merit of the argument anyway would mean there’s no point in proving standing. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/28 "2024-06-13T17:25:16Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > But how did the appeals court reason that the plaintiffs had standing? I’ve not read the decision, but my understanding is that the 5th Circuit is one of the most conservative of the circuits, so that probably factored into the decision. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/29 "2024-06-13T17:33:53Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Of course, that just means some dipshits are going to be looking for some other way to show standing. Any minute now. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/04/abortion-pill-states-challenge-supreme-court/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/04/abortion-pill-states-challenge-supreme-court/) > The states have already made the case in court filings that they should be allowed to pursue a challenge in part because of what they describe as added public insurance costs for emergency medical care and mental health support because of complications from abortion pills. Missouri and Idaho officials say they have a separate interest in enforcing the state’s strict bans on abortion, which they say are undermined by the dispensing of abortion pills through the mail sent from states where the procedure is legal. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/30 "2024-06-13T17:35:51Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > They’re just lying in wait. I agree w everything you wrote except this last bit. They’re _not_ lying in wait. They’re in a full court, no holds barred, no rules obeyed, end-to-end, floor to ceiling press to hasten that day to the limits of their evil criminal ability. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/31 "2024-06-13T19:45:12Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Of course, that just means some dipshits are going to be looking for some other way to show standing. True. But if there WERE cases of women harmed by the pill, the right-wingers would have already used them to file their case. It’s because there are two decades of safe use, and no clear cases of any remote harm from that use, that they had to resort to Doctors Offended That Some Women Get To Receive Health Care (Of A Kind That The Doctors Think They Should Not Get). > [@Aspenglow](#): > > Their ultimate goal is to take these decisions to partisan legislators who are pandering to certain of their Christian supporters and remove any role of medical expertise or non-partisan standards imposed by the FDA. A shortcut of sorts may well be offered by a President Trump, who is quite likely to install an anti-science Christian Nationalist as head of the FDA. (Anyone willing to bet _against_ that?) Today’s non-ruling will be most significant for the use that Republicans will attempt to make of it: to show that _‘even the conservative justices defended your right to abortion, ladies, so Vote Republican this November!’_ Look for it in their upcoming ads. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/32 "2024-06-13T20:18:41Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Their ultimate goal is to take these decisions to partisan legislators who are pandering to certain of their Christian supporters and remove any role of medical expertise or non-partisan standards imposed by the FDA. > > Me? I don’t want the likes of Matt Gaetz or Rand Paul or Ron DeSantis or Ted Cruz in charge of decisions I or my loved ones may need to make in consultation with our doctors. IDK, I think Trump or whoever could absolutely muck around enough with institutions that are supposed to be nonpartisan to make this distinction effectively moot if they want to. I think this was an unambiguously good ruling personally, and I don’t really see any indication that there is a future where they will allow this to be challenged. Plus, they may want to set themselves up in the future if there are federal abortion bans passed by Republicans to say that the feds are allowed to regulate abortion meds. Of course after Dobbs, good news like this is the faintest silver lining on a hurricane cloud. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/33 "2026-05-15T00:23:35Z")
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of keeping current access to mifepristone. > [@](#): > > The decision means patients can continue to obtain a prescription for the medication via telehealth and pick it up at a pharmacy or have it delivered by mail. More than one in four women who get an abortion today obtain the medicine via telehealth, according to the ACLU. > **[Supreme Court preserves broad access to abortion drug mifepristone](https://abcnews.com/Politics/supreme-court-preserves-broad-access-abortion-drug-mifepristone/story?id=132962639)** > > The Supreme Court on Thursday preserved broad access to the abortion pill mifepristone without an in-person doctor visit. Clarence Thomas and Alito dissented from the decision, because of course they did. An obvious next step by anti-abortion forces would be to press the current corrupted FDA to declare mifepristone medically dangerous. Of course, this fooferaw initiated by the state of Louisiana was never remotely about patient safety, but to block access to abortion. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639/34 "2026-05-15T06:15:39Z")
This isn’t the final word, though, right? This is just SCOTUS keeping the stay in place while the case wends its way through the system. They will get another bite at the apple once the actual case is in front of the Court. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-the-scotus-decision-on-access-to-mifepristone-affect-access-to-other-medications/994639.md?page=1)