The Supreme Court announced today that it will take up the FDA appeal of FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. The Fifth Circuit court issued a ruling reinstating restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone, with the Supreme Court in April issuing a stay maintaining the FDA approval during legal proceedings.
In March 2016 the FDA lifted restrictions on mifepristone under the 2000 FDA approval, extending the restriction from the first seven weeks to the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. In 2021, the FDA allowed a generic version of the pill to be mail-ordered, and removed the requirement that a doctor needed to be present to dispense the pill.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit in November 2022 challenging the FDA approval of mifepristone in 2000 under which the FDA characterized pregnancy as an illness. ADF Senior Counsel Julie Marie Blake said in a press release that mifepristone is dangerous to mothers, and does not provide a therapeutic benefit: “Pregnancy is not an illness, and chemical abortion drugs don’t provide a therapeutic benefit — they end a baby’s life and they pose serious and life-threatening complications to the mother.”
The ADF also said the mail-order availability of the drug is a health risk to women: “This decision puts girls and women at additional risk from chemical abortion drugs since mail-order, at-home abortions skip necessary medical examinations to ensure that girls and women do not have conditions that could lead to fatal outcomes.
