Idaho appeals court blocks pro-life states from FDA abortion pill lawsuit

A federal court in Idaho barred seven GOP-led states from intervening in a lawsuit challenging the Federal Drug Administration’s restrictions on access to the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone. The state of Washington filed the lawsuit with 16 other states and the District of Columbia after the FDA removed the requirement for in-person dispensing of mifepristone in 2023. The change allowed retail pharmacies to dispense the drug, rather than just hospitals or medical offices. It also legalized the dispensing of mifepristone by mail order. The blue-state coalition sued the FDA, alleging the government didn’t go far enough to broaden access to the drug.

The red-state coalition filed to join the lawsuit hoping to reimpose restrictions removed in 2023. The states aiming to join the case with Idaho included Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah. The states already involved in Washington’s lawsuit include Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania.

What was the court’s reasoning? The 9th Circuit Appeals Court ruled that the Idaho-led coalition may not join the Washington-led lawsuit because they seek a different form of relief than the lawsuit’s original filers. Idaho’s complaint to intervene also fails to establish a tangible injury associated with the FDA’s new restrictions, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sidney R. Thomas wrote.

Thoams referenced the Supreme Court’s recent decision in FDA v Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine as the basis of the ruling. In that case, justices found the causal chain between FDA regulation of mifepristone and future medical outcomes to be very weak. SCOTUS also recently reminded courts to be wary of state-standing arguments that rely on the indirect effects to overrule federal law, the opinion added. Thomas also noted that the loosened FDA restrictions do not stop Idaho from banning medical abortion with mifepristone within the state.

Dig deeper: Read my report on a Wisconsin state court barring several pro-life groups from joining an abortion lawsuit.