Republicans Renew Attack on Abortion Pills

Republicans renewed their nationwide attack on abortion pills on Wednesday in a new complaint against the Food and Drug Administration.

The amended complaint, filed by attorneys general from Kansas, Missouri and Idaho, is a follow-up to the FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case that the Supreme Court decided this summer. The state’s attorneys general and former plaintiffs are seeking to significantly restrict access to mifepristone, one of two drugs that have been widely and safely used in medication abortions since the FDA first approved it in 2000.

Although the Supreme Court rejected Since the previous plaintiffs did not run, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a Texas federal court overseen by one of the country’s most notorious abortion opponents. The ruling came as a relief to abortion rights advocates at the time, but the decision actually turned on its head the question of whether access to mifepristone should remain unchanged or be further restricted. The move signaled to the country that the conservative-majority Supreme Court is ready to bring future attacks on abortion pills to trial — and this week’s amended brief is the future attack that many legal experts warned about this summer.

“What the court could have done, if it wasn’t such a politicized court, is make a decision that included the fact that mifepristone is known to be safe and safer than Tylenol or Viagra and various other things that don’t exist. “under the same types of regulatory protocols,” said Michele Goodwin, an expert on reproductive health laws and a law professor at Georgetown University. “But the court didn’t do that.”

Attorneys general argue that the FDA acted “unlawfully” when the agency lifted its personal requirements for access to mifepristone, claiming the drug is “dangerous” and poses a “high risk” to patients, the lawsuit seeks also aims to ban mifepristone for minors and only make the pill available until the seventh week of pregnancy instead of the tenth. All of this is argued with brazen anti-abortion rhetoric and very little scientific evidence to back up the claims that they “protect” “women’s health.” Several of the studies cited in the complaint were actually retracted because they used misleading data and had close links to Anti-abortion groups had.

Republican officials’ main goal in the amended complaint is to ban the mailing of abortion drugs through appeal the Comstock Lawa 150-year-old law that criminalizes sending “obscene” material through the mail, including anything “intended to induce an abortion.”

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas brought up the Comstock Act several times during oral arguments in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. Their persistence signaled at least that they were willing to engage in the argument and at most suggested that they agreed that Comstock should prevail. Their questions at the time suggested that in the future they might side with the plaintiffs who made this argument with better standing.

The amended complaint is similar to the original complaint in many ways, including that there are no plaintiffs directly harmed by mifepristone (a key component in filing a lawsuit), and therefore the original complaint was dismissed for lack of merit. But the authority of three state attorneys general to make this argument — rather than the private citizens who originally filed the lawsuit in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine — could make a difference.

“Here you have attorneys general articulating that they have a responsibility to protect the health and safety of the people who live in their states,” Goodwin said, referring to officials’ claim that mifepristone is dangerous. “That might be an argument that is acceptable to this court, at least enough to recognize that they may have standing to sue.”

The other difference is timing. The country is less than three weeks away from a follow-up election that could alter the already bleak landscape of abortion access. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has joined forces with some of the most extreme anti-abortion activists in Project 2025, crafting a political plan that conjures images of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” A Trump Justice Department could stop defending the FDA the way the Biden administration has done in recent years.

“In an election where Americans have made so clear where they stand on abortion, these extremists continue to act against the will of the people. Whether through the courts or the White House, MAGA Republicans are committed to banning abortion,” said Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, in a press release. “This is a red flag, and we must elect Kamala Harris as our next president and build a pro-reproductive freedom majority in the U.S. Congress to stop it.”

By resorting to the original lawsuit, Republican officials can file their complaint in Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s courtroom in Texas. Kacsmaryk, a far-right Trump nominee known for his anti-abortion stance, is the federal judge who ruled last year that the FDA unlawfully approved mifepristone when it first came on the market more than two decades ago. Both Kacsmaryk and the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals are likely to side with Republican abortion opponents.

Although the attorneys general are from Kansas, Missouri and Idaho, a ruling in this case would have ripple effects across the country.

The 199-page complaint contains many outlandish statements, including claims that medication abortion “starves the baby in the womb.” As feminist author Jessica Valenti, who first reported the amended complaint, pointed out, one of Republican officials’ most bizarre claims is that medication abortion is so terrible that the sight of blood in a toilet triggers post-traumatic stress disorder in women. “Women who choose chemical abortion are more likely to continue to associate their home or bathroom with abortion. “The home could become a source of unpleasant feelings rather than a place of refuge,” the lawsuit says.

Despite anti-abortion claims, mifepristone and misoprostol are more than 95% effective and pose fewer risks than Tylenol. Over 100 studies have confirmed its safety and effectiveness. Medication abortions account for 63% of abortion procedures in the U.S., according to a study by the reproductive rights group the Guttmacher Institute. In addition to treating abortions and miscarriages, mifepristone is also used to treat other conditions, including Cushing’s syndrome and hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar.