Durbin's Statement on the Supreme Court's Decision on FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement regarding the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision on Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, which held that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) actions regarding the regulation of the abortion pill mifepristone:

“In acknowledging that a group of anti-abortion activists has no standing to deny women access to safe and effective FDA-approved medications, the Supreme Court made the right decision today.  But make no mistake, this outcome was not assured and the fight is far from over.  Radical right-wing judges and extremist Republican elected officials will continue their efforts to strip women of their reproductive freedoms across the nation.  Senate Democrats will continue to fight to protect Americans’ access to reproductive health care.”

In March, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing entitled “The Continued Assault on Reproductive Freedoms in a Post-Dobbs America.”  The hearing examined the continued and devastating fallout since the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in June 2022 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.  This hearing follows two previous hearings the Committee has held on reproductive freedoms since Roe was overruled—one in July 2022 and one in April 2023.  Since Dobbs, the reproductive health care landscape in America has become more unsettled, resulting in women across the country—whether or not they live in states where abortion is restricted or banned—facing negative and sometimes life-threatening outcomes. 

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