During oral arguments in the Supreme Court case of FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine on Tuesday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made it clear to fellow justice Samuel Alito that she wasn’t about to put up with his so-called “scientific knowledge” of abortion or drugs that allow women to exercise their reproductive freedom.
The Daily Beast notes that the case involves the drug mifepristone, a drug that can be used by women in the privacy of their homes and is now the method of choice for 63% of women across the country.
The justices heard arguments Tuesday morning from a lawyer for the anti-abortion Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, which holds that the FDA erred in allowing mifepristone, one of the drugs used in a medication abortion, to be dispensed remotely. The FDA and most major medical associations say the ruling is sound, pointing to studies showing no difference in severe complications when the pills are dispensed via telemedicine versus in person.
Attorneys arguing on behalf of the drug noted that the plaintiffs in the case had no legal standing to even bring the case, which led Alito to ask, “Shouldn’t someone be able to challenge that in court? The American people have no remedy for that?”
Alito later asked essentially the same question of an attorney for Danco, the company that manufactures mifepristone.
“During the questioning of the solicitor general, the statement was made that no court has ever previously second-guessed the FDA’s judgment about access to a drug,” Alito said.
“Do you think the FDA is infallible?”
That prompted Justice Jackson to inquire, “You were asked if the agency is infallible, and I guess I’m wondering about the flip side, which is do you think that courts have specialized scientific knowledge with respect to pharmaceuticals?”
“Do you have concerns about judges parsing medical and scientific studies?”
As Justice Jackson rightly observed, courts and judges do not have special medical knowledge. Doctors and scientists, however, do, and they’re the ones who should make the decisions on what drugs are safe and are available to the public.
