Anti-abortion organizations filed a lawsuit on Friday requesting a court to invalidate the United States Food and Drug Administration’s clearance of the drug mifepristone for medicated abortion, which may restrict access to medication abortion across the country, Reuters reports.
The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, among others, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, alleging that the U.S. FDA lacked the authority to approve the drug for abortion in 2000 and that it had inadequately examined the risks to minors.
The complaint claimed that the FDA “failed America’s women and girls” by approving chemical abortion medications for usage in the country while choosing politics above science.
In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision overturning its historic 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling guaranteeing abortion rights nationally, President Joe Biden’s administration took action earlier this year to increase access to abortion medication.
A prescription medication called mifepristone has been FDA-approved to trigger an abortion up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy. Misoprostol, another medication, must be taken after it. There are other uses for both medicines.
According to the lawsuit filed on Friday, plaintiffs claim that the FDA improperly approved mifepristone for abortion in 2000 as part of an expedited procedure meant to give patients faster access to better treatments for illnesses—even though pregnancy is not an illness. Additionally, the FDA was alleged to have waived the requirement to study the drug separately for pediatric patients.
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