(BIVN) – In it’s the first major abortion ruling since overturning Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court on Thursday upheld full access to the abortion drug, mifepristone.

In a unanimous ruling in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the justices decided that the plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the Food and Drug Administration actions in approving the drug.

The Supreme Court provides the background on the mifepristone lawsuit in its decision:

In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug application for mifepristone tablets marketed under the brand name Mifeprex for use in terminating pregnancies up to seven weeks. To help ensure that Mifeprex would be used safely and effectively, FDA placed additional restrictions on the drug’s use and distribution, for example requiring doctors to prescribe or to supervise prescription of Mifeprex, and requiring patients to have three in-person visits with the doctor to receive the drug. In 2016, FDA relaxed some of these restrictions: deeming Mifeprex safe to terminate pregnancies up to 10 weeks; allowing healthcare providers, such as nurse practitioners, to prescribe Mifeprex; and approving a dosing regimen that required just one in-person visit to receive the drug. In 2019, FDA approved an application for generic mifepristone. In 2021, FDA announced that it would no longer enforce the initial in-person visit requirement. Four pro-life medical associations and several individual doctors moved for a preliminary injunction that would require FDA either to rescind approval of mifepristone or to rescind FDA’s 2016 and 2021 regulatory actions. Danco Laboratories, which sponsors Mifeprex, intervened to defend FDA’s actions.

The District Court agreed with the plaintiffs, and the ruling ordered mifepristone off the market.

The U.S. Senator for Hawaiʻi, Mazie Hirono (D), who describes herself as a long-time champion for abortion access, joined over 200 of her colleagues in submitting an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the lawsuit.

“Today’s decision has preserved access to mifepristone for now, however, the door remains open so that this access could be challenged again in the future,” said Sen. Hirono in a statement. “Let’s be clear—we are in this position because the far-right super majority on the Supreme Court overturned Roe and sowed chaos for millions of people across the country. Our rights should not be dependent on the ideological whims of this Court—we must secure the fundamental rights of all Americans to access abortion and make decisions about their own bodies and futures. That is why we need to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act and protect access to reproductive health care for all.”