17 Minnesota DFL Legislators Sign Brief Asking Supreme Court to Preserve Access to Abortion Pill

Seventeen Democrat legislators from Minnesota have attached their names to an amicus brief last week that asks the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appellate court decision that would roll back the public’s access to mifepristone, an abortion-inducing medication.

The DFLers joined a group of more than 600 Democrat legislators from 49 states in signing onto the brief, which asks the nation’s highest court to reject the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ August ruling in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine that concluded several decisions the FDA took in 2016 to make mifepristone more broadly available to women were illegal.

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Supreme Court Maintains Broad Access to Abortion Pill, Pending Litigation

The Supreme Court on Friday opted to preserve access to mifepristone while a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug makes its way through the courts. The Biden administration and mifepristone manufacturer Danco Laboratories had appealed to the court for relief. The court did not decide on the merits of the case, which will continue through the court system, the Associated Press reported.

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SCOTUS Justice Alito Halts Limits on Abortion Pill Access, Blocking Lower Court Rulings

Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito on Friday blocked lower court rulings that curtailed access to mifepristone while the court weighs a request from the Biden administration to defend the drug in court. The administration hopes to defend the drug’s approval in court in the face of a legal challenge from anti-abortion groups that had brought the initial suit, Reuters reported. Alito’s order asks both sides to submit arguments by Tuesday on whether the limits from the appeals court should take effect, pending litigation, the Associated Press reported.

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National Pro-Life Group Praises Ruling Suspending FDA’s ‘Rubber Stamp’ of Abortion Drug as Democrat-Led States Stockpile Pills

One of the nation’s leading pro-life organizations is praising the ruling out of a U.S. district court in Texas Friday that has stayed the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the abortion drug mifepristone nationwide.

However, within hours of the ruling by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Donald Trump appointee, a Washington State federal judge then issued a decision in State of Washington v. United States Food and Drug Administration, which blocked “altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone.”

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Federal Judge Suspends FDA Approval of Abortion Pill

A federal judge on Friday suspended the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, effectively stopping sale of the drug nationwide.

Mifepristone is one of two drugs necessary for a sort of abortion cocktail that allows recipients to terminate a pregnancy via pill. The second drug, misoprostol, is available through a traditional prescription. The FDA in January announced a regulatory change to permit major pharmacy chains to carry the drug in stores as opposed to mail-order pharmacies or select clinics.

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Texas Case Could End Access to ‘Dangerous’ Abortion-Inducing Drug Nationwide

A federal judge heard oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit that could end availability of abortion-inducing drug mifepristone throughout the nation.

The case was brought against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November by Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a coalition of pro-life OB/GYNS, pediatricians, and other Christian healthcare providers, who are seeking a preliminary injunction to require the FDA to either withdraw or suspend its approval of the drug while the lawsuit continues.

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Republican Attorneys General Warn CVS and Walgreens Against Mailing and Distributing Abortion-Inducing Drugs

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey led 19 other Republican state attorneys general (AGs) in a warning letter to CVS and Walgreens that asserts federal law forbids using the mail to send or receive drugs that are intended to be used to produce an abortion.

Bailey and the coalition of attorneys general wrote to the two drugstore chains, informing them that their announced plan to use the mail to distribute abortion pills is both unsafe and illegal.

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Ohio Congressman Calls Out FDA for ‘Illegal’ Approval of Mail-Order Abortifacients

U.S. Representative Bob Latta (R-OH-5) is leading a charge by federal lawmakers against the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) relaxation of safety requirements for abortion drugs so consumers can access them by mail.

The Bowling Green-area lawmaker coauthored a letter with U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) and garnered signatures from 75 other members of Congress to insist that the FDA’s recent actions violate federal law. In particular, the legislators object to the agency’s approval of chemical abortion-inducing substances while no longer requiring in-person dispensing. 

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Abortion Pill Maker Sues Red States over Bans: ‘Impacts the Company’s Bottom Line’

A company behind the manufacturing of a pill used in chemical abortions filed a lawsuit on Wednesday morning challenging state bans on the abortions, The New York Times reported.

GenBioPro, which makes the abortion pill mifepristone, filed the lawsuit in a West Virginia federal court to argue that Federal Food and Drug regulations (FDA) take priority over state laws regulating abortion, according to the NYT. The lawsuit argues that the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill trumps state laws and that abortion bans violate the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which protects interstate commerce.

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Susan B. Anthony List Applauds 22 Pro-Life Attorneys General, Including Tennessee’s Skrmetti, in Urging the FDA to Reverse New Policy on Abortion Drug

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America recently thanked a coalition of 22 attorneys general, including Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, for sending a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the agency’s “illegal and dangerous” policy on mifepristone, a chemical abortion drug.

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Exclusive: Reps. Harshbarger and Hern Introduce Bill to Stop Mail-Order Chemical Abortion

Representatives Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01) and Kevin Hern (R-OK-01) introduced a bill Tuesday in the U.S. House of Representatives to invalidate the FDA’s recently-updated Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) of mifepristone, a chemical abortion drug.

Mifepristone is a chemical drug treatment that works together with misoprostol to end a pregnancy through ten weeks gestation, according to the FDA.
Mifepristone is a chemical drug treatment that works together with misoprostol to end a pregnancy through ten weeks gestation, according to the FDA.

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Existing Ohio Law Protecting Unborn Babies Blocks FDA Approval of Pharmacy Distribution of Abortion Pills

The “Abortion Pill,” also known as RU-486, could previously only be prescribed by medical professionals in the United States. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has officially authorized pharmacy distribution of RU-486, but an Ohio law passed in 2004 forbids pharmacies from distributing these harmful pills.

The drug, commonly known as Mifepristone, has recently received FDA approval, and retailers like Walgreens and CVS across the U.S. have already declared they will stock it. In Ohio however, only doctors with specific training and certification can offer, sell, dispense, or administer the drugs.

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FDA Approves Chemical Abortion Pills to Be Sold at Retail Pharmacies

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a regulatory change that allows independent and chain drugstores, as well as mail-order companies, to offer a drug that induces abortion, making it easier for women and girls to conduct their own abortions at home or in college dorms.

The New York Times reported Tuesday evening the FDA’s regulatory change, which apparently came without an official announcement to the public, officially removes the requirement for the patient to have an in-person doctor’s visit for the prescription of mifepristone, the first drug used to induce an abortion.

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Federal Lawsuit Calls FDA’s Approval of Abortion-Inducing Drugs ‘Politics Over Science’

Worldwide religious freedom legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit Friday that challenges the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of chemical abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, claiming they present significant health risks to a pregnant woman as they also starve her unborn child to death.

“[T]he FDA failed America’s women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States,” the lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, asserts. “And it has continued to fail them by repeatedly removing even the most basic precautionary requirements associated with their use.”

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Report: FDA Concerned Providers Prescribing Abortion-Inducing Drugs for Women Who Are Not Pregnant

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says abortion providers are prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to women in advance of becoming pregnant – a practice that is without authorization and potentially dangerous for women.

“The FDA is concerned about the advance prescribing of mifepristone for this use,” an anonymous FDA spokesperson reportedly told the German-owned Politico Friday. “Mifepristone is not approved for advance provision of a medical abortion.”

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Telehealth Abortions Are Available to Virginians

Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., (PPMW) is now providing telehealth abortions to people with addresses in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C., according to a September 10 press release. After a phone screening and an online consultation, PPMW mails abortion drugs to the patient. Total cost for the service is $525, including a follow-up consultation and pregnancy test.

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