The Alliance Defending Freedom has challenged the Food and Drug Administration’s “unprecedented and unlawful actions” in approving chemical abortion drugs and removing “critical safeguards” according to a press release from the organization. The ADF accused the FDA of “plac[ing] politics above the health and safety of women and girls.”
The ADF challenged the FDA’s “unprecedented” decisions, including
(1) classifying pregnancy as an “illness,” (2) approving mifepristone for use without the safeguards under which it had been tested, (3) failing to respond to Plaintiffs’ citizen petitions for over 16 years, (4) removing every meaningful safeguard that FDA once found necessary to mitigate the dangers of mifepristone, and (5) authorizing mailing of the drug in violation of federal law.
The Center for Reproductive Rights argues that mifepristone has “a well-documented safety record.” The organization warns that “[i]f the lawsuit succeeds, access to the most common medication abortion regimen used in the U.S. would end across the country—even in those states where abortion rights are protected.”
The ADF appeared before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on May 17, 2023, asking the appeals court to let stand a lower court’s order prohibiting mail-order chemical abortion drugs and reversing the FDA’s decision to revise the permissible gestational age for taking chemical abortion drugs. The appeals court earlier affirmed the lower court’s ruling during the expedited appeals process.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has posted the audio of oral arguments to YouTube:
The ADF is representing medical associations and doctors with experience “caring for pregnant and post-abortive women” and challenging FDA actions dating back to 2000, when the FDA approved the chemical abortion drug mifepristone, which is used with misoprostol to end a pregnancy.
A three-judge panel of Republican appointees is hearing the appeal: Jennifer Walker Elrod (George W. Bush), James C. Ho (Donald Trump), and Cory Todd Wilson (Donald Trump).
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY