The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold access to a widely available abortion pill frustrated antiabortion activists. But it allowed Republicans to dodge a potentially toxic issue in the midst of a tight presidential race.
Medication abortion remains broadly popular: A series of surveys have found that a majority of Americans support access to medication abortion, though the public is split over whether it should be available without a prescription.
A ruling limiting access to the medication would have given Democrats another way to hammer their opponents on an issue that’s become politically damaging for Republican politicians.
Since the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Republican candidates have struggled to reconcile their party’s decades-old opposition to abortion rights with the issue’s shifting political reality.
Donald J. Trump has notably refused to state his position on abortion medication, promising in April to release a policy on the issue “over the next week.”
On Thursday, his campaign tried to move past the issue and turn attention back to Mr. Biden.
“The Supreme Court has unanimously decided 9-0. The matter is settled,” said Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign. “This election is about correcting the weakness, failures and dishonesty of the Biden crime family.”
Mr. Trump said that Republicans needed to improve their messaging on the issue in meetings with congressional Republicans on Capitol Hill after the decision. He urged his party to avoid discussion of bans at a specific number of weeks and instead leave the issue to the voters, according to a person in the room.
But the next president will have the power to restrict the drug or even criminalize it nationwide, through agencies like the Justice Department and Health and Human Services.
Allies of Mr. Trump and officials who served in his administration have suggested proposals that would enforce the Comstock Act, a long-dormant law from 1873, to criminalize the shipping of any materials used in an abortion — including abortion pills.
On a call with reporters, supporters of President Biden’s campaign said Mr. Trump would impose a national ban on medication abortion through executive action, pointing to policy plans released by his allies that would reverse the F.D.A.’s approval of the drug. Aides said that Mr. Biden plans to address the issue at the first presidential debate, scheduled for later this month, contrasting his support for abortion rights with Mr. Trump’s position that the policy should be left for states to decide.
“Trump and his allies are laying the groundwork to ban medication abortion nationwide,” said Mini Timmaraju, the chief executive of Reproductive Freedom for All, an abortion rights organization. She blamed the former president — who appointed three of the court’s conservative justices — for overturning Roe v. Wade, which established the constitutional right to abortion, in 2022.
The ruling is unlikely to end efforts by the antiabortion movement to restrict abortion medication. Missouri, Kansas and Idaho, all states with Republican attorneys general, remain parties in the lower court case and could try to revive the litigation as new plaintiffs.
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.