AG Tong supports Supreme Court decision on abortion access

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong issued a statement supporting the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to strike down FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine , a case that would have challenged access to mifepristone, an abortion medication.

“Medication abortion is safe, legal and accessible in Connecticut,” said Tong. “That was true before today, and following this decision, it will stay that way.”

The case in question was originally filed in November 2022, seeking to reverse the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, a single-dose pill used to induce early-term abortion. The drug was originally approved by the FDA for abortions in 2000, and has since been used by about 5 million people for abortions or miscarriage management. The medication has accounted for 64 percent of abortions performed in the state of Connecticut in 2021, according to Tong’s statement. The plaintiffs, a collection of anti-abortion doctors and activists, cited a since retracted study that claimed the use of mifepristone led to an increased number of medical complications than initially reported.

The case was initially presided over in the Northern Texas District Court, where Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk decided in agreement with the plaintiffs in April 2023. A week later, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Appeals Court ruled to maintain mifepristone’s legality, but to place restrictions on its access, rolling back previous rulings made by the FDA in 2016 and 2021 that made the drug easier to prescribe and distribute to patients. The Justice Department and Danco Laboratories, a mifepristone manufacturer, appealed these restrictions to the Supreme Court on April 14. Earlier today, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously to reverse the previous restrictions, stating that the plaintiffs lacked standing due to their lack of injury by the FDA’s previous approval of the drug.

“The plaintiffs want FDA to make mifepristone more difficult for other doctors to prescribe and for pregnant women to obtain. Under Article III of the Constitution, a plaintiff ’s desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue,” reads the Supreme Court’s decision.

Tong has made very clear his stance on abortion access in the past. In April 2023, Tong joined 16 other states and Washington, D.C. in filing a lawsuit to challenge the then approved restrictions on access to mifepristone. In February 2024, Tong joined 24 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of access to mifepristone. In March of this year, Tong joined other state officials and abortion advocates at the State Office Building to speak in support of abortion access.

“Let’s not think for one second that this threat is going away,” said Tong in today’s statement. “Anti-choice radicals are combing this decision as we speak and have already started the process of coming back with new plaintiffs. We will fight back at every single step along the way to protect the rights of patients and providers to live their lives and do their jobs free from extremist political micromanagement.”

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