Anti-Abortion Groups Ask Trump-Appointed Judge to Ban Mailing Abortion Pills

Anti-Abortion Groups Ask Trump-Appointed Judge to Ban Mailing Abortion Pills
11/23/2022 by Carrie N. Baker
A lawsuit seeks to revive the 1873 Comstock Law—named after the zealous anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock—to ban from U.S. mails the medication now used for over half of abortions in the United States.




Abortion rights demonstrators gather near the State Capitol in Austin, Texas, on June 25, 2022, for a second day of protest against the Supreme Court’s thunderbolt ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson, as state after conservative state moved swiftly to ban the procedure. (Suzanne Cordiero /AFP via Getty Images)

On Nov. 18, anti-abortion advocates filed a federal lawsuit challenging the FDA approval of the medication mifepristone in 2000—as well as subsequent updates to the approval in 2016, 2019 and most recently in December 2021, when the agency began allowing clinicians to mail abortion pills to their patients. The lawsuit alleges the FDA did not have proof of the medication’s safety, despite extensive evidence showing abortion pills are safe and effective—more so than many other medications, including over the counter drugs such as Tylenol. “This is yet another attempt by anti-abortion extremists to force their beliefs on all of us,” said Kirsten Moore, director of Expanding Medication Abortion Access Project (EMAA Project), which advocates for increased access to mifepristone for abortion and miscarriage care.

The conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed the lawsuit on behalf of four antiabortion medical organizations and several doctors against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ADF represented Mississippi in the case that led the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade and they have helped draft anti-abortion laws adopted in many states. The 113-page complaint argues the FDA unlawfully fast-tracked the approval of mifepristone in 2000 and did not have the required research to prove the safety of the drug under the labeled conditions of use.

To the contrary, a 2018 Government Accountability Office report concluded that the FDA “followed its standard review process when it approved the application … for the drug Mifeprex” and “based its approval on reviews of peer-reviewed published studies, articles, and other information submitted by Mifeprex’s sponsor.” The FDA subsequently conducted extensive reviews of the mifepristone’s safety again in 2016.

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“The law that conservatives used to shut down contraceptive pills at the turn of the century—this is where they want to take us back to,” said Moore. The lawsuit seeks to reverse the increasing availability of medication abortion and telemedicine abortion. In 2020, medication abortion accounted for 54 percent of all pregnancy terminations in the U.S. After a federal court lifted the FDA requirement that clinicians distribute the medication in person in July of 2020, telemedicine abortion services surged across the United States, becoming available in 20 states, expanding further after the FDA permanently lifted the in-person distribution requirement in December of 2021.


https://msmagazine.com/2022/11/23/texas-lawsuit-abortion-pills-mifepristone-fifth-circuit-court/