Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) praised the Supreme Court’s decision to allow access to the abortion pill mifepristone, calling it “the right decision.”
“Today’s Supreme Court decision affirming full access to safe and effective mifepristone is the right decision for millions of women across the country,” House Speaker Pelosi said in a statement after Thursday’s ruling. “This unanimous decision rightfully declares that plaintiffs lack legal standing to challenge the FDA’s actions and rejects the far-right’s attack on women’s health freedoms, which is rooted more in a desire to punish and control women than in science or law.”
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that anti-abortion doctors have no legal basis to challenge access to mifepristone, a drug commonly used in medication abortions.
The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision overturned a lower court ruling that would have made it harder to obtain mifepristone, which is already used in about two-thirds of abortions in the United States.
The ruling means abortion pills can be made available to patients up to the 10th week of pregnancy and delivered by mail.
Pelosi also criticized former President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement and pointed to the Supreme Court’s 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“Just two years after the MAGA movement stripped away basic reproductive rights with its outrageous Dobbs decision, it continues its anti-women, anti-freedom offensive,” she said. “The Supreme Court got it right today, but we must not forget that because of Donald Trump and this Supreme Court, women today have less freedom than their mothers and grandmothers.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a strong critic of President Trump, insisted that the MAGA movement “will not rest” until a nationwide abortion ban is achieved.
Biden struck a similar tone Thursday, arguing that rather than praising the Supreme Court decision, the struggle for reproductive rights in the U.S. is an ongoing issue.
“Today’s decision does not change the fact that the fight for reproductive freedom continues. Roe v. Wade “Two years ago women lost their fundamental freedoms,” the president said in a statement Thursday. “The fact remains that in many states women’s right to access the medical care they need is at risk, if not impossible.”
Trump, who is Biden’s main rival in the November presidential election, said earlier this year that he would not sign a nationwide abortion ban if he was re-elected and a bill passed by Congress, stressing that abortion policy should be decided by each state.
“Now the states have it, and the states put out what they want,” the former president told reporters in April. “It’s the will of the people.”
Biden’s campaign was quick to deny Trump’s comments that he would not sign a nationwide abortion ban, pointing to his record on the issue and arguing that he would threaten access to abortion if re-elected.
While a federal abortion ban would likely face many challenges, abortion advocates have warned that access to abortion pills could be at risk if the former president remains in the White House for a second term, regardless of congressional action.
