States join legal fight against abortion drug

Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho last week joined a lawsuit filed by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The lawsuit alleges that the FDA risked women’s health by allowing them to order abortion drugs through the mail without medical supervision. The states filed an amended complaint asking U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas to reverse the FDA’s loosening of requirements to access to the drugs. In the new suit, the states argue that the FDA’s actions violate state abortion laws by enabling women to access abortion drugs from other states.

What is the history of the case? Judge Kacsmaryk in 2023 paused FDA approval of mifepristone and the subsequent expansion of access to the drug. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals left in place the drug’s initial approval, but sided with the pro-life doctors who challenged the FDA’s decision to allow its dispensation through the mail. The U.S. Supreme Court later intervened to keep the drug accessible, and ultimately the court this summer unanimously rejected the lawsuit. Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered the court’s opinion and wrote that the doctors’ group did not have standing to sue the FDA. They did not demonstrate that the relaxed regulatory requirements would cause them harm. He wrote. 

Dig deeper: Read Jerry Bowyer’s opinion piece urging retail pharmacies to refuse to sell mifepristone.