Abortion pill access seems likely to withstand scrutiny from US Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court’s apparent scepticism towards restricting access to the abortion pill could limit the potential damage for Republicans in the November election as they face voter backlash over the party’s stance on reproductive rights.

Abortion has been a huge political vulnerability for Republicans ever since the Supreme Court in the summer of 2022 overturned Roe vs Wade, which had enshrined the constitutional right to the procedure, just months ahead of the midterm elections.

Democrats have used preserving access to abortion to rally voters in states across the US, and the issue is expected to be one of Donald Trump’s weak points in the presidential election. 

The abortion pill case heard on Tuesday by the Supreme Court stems from a legal challenge filed by a group of anti-abortion advocates alleging the US Food and Drug Administration did not properly approve the drug for terminating pregnancies, and had not considered its safety when used by girls younger than 18.

During oral arguments, justices from the court’s conservative and liberal wings expressed scepticism about restricting the distribution of pills containing mifepristone, which account for more than half of abortions in the US.

Conservative justice Neil Gorsuch said the case “seems like a prime example of turning what could be a small lawsuit into a nationwide legislative assembly on an FDA rule”.

The court’s decision is likely to land by the end of June, just as Trump and US President Joe Biden will be hitting the campaign trail ahead of November’s vote.

If the court preserves access to the abortion pill, it could prevent further damage to Trump and other Republicans with swing voters who have balked at measures restricting reproductive rights. Otherwise it could deepen the challenge they face, particularly among women.

Trump seems to recognise the damage that a tough anti-abortion stance has done to his party. The former president has suggested less draconian restrictions compared with other Republicans in Congress.

He has expressed support for in vitro fertilisation at the state level — after Alabama’s highest court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children — and suggested he would back a national ban on abortion at 15 weeks of gestation, which is longer than the restrictions in some states.

However, he has also boasted his appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices who voted to reverse Roe — Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — which was a long-sought goal of many Republican campaigners.

Democrats, who have energised their base of voters in response to Republican abortion restrictions, have depicted Trump as radical on the issue. 

During his State of the Union address earlier this month, Biden cited the decision to reverse Roe, admonishing the justices in attendance: “With all due respect, justices, ‘women are not without . . . electoral or political power’. You’re about to realise just how much”.

“Whether in the courts, in state legislatures or the halls of Mar-a-Lago, Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans are showing us every day that reproductive rights are on the ballot in November,” Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, told reporters on Monday.