Planned Parenthood seeks injunction against Arkansas chemical abortion regulations

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the Planned Parenthood affiliate covering Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and eastern Oklahoma, has filed a lawsuit against a newly-enacted Arkansas law requiring abortion drugs be prescribed in accordance with federal Food and Drug Administration standards.

The law, which is slated to go into effect Friday, requires Mifeprex medication abortions (mifepristone and misoprostol) to be administered at the dose the FDA recommends rather than the much lower dosage that has become common among abortion practice, and that women take misoprostol pills in-clinic rather than on their own.

Planned Parenthood claims the FDA protocols are based on outdated and obsolete medical knowledge, and that by taking effect the law “would end access to two out of the three abortion-providing health centers in the state.”

However, as Live Action News has covered regarding similar legal battles in other states, these drugs have been linked to several deaths by sepsis and many personal accounts of negative experiences. A 2011 study published in the Australian Family Physician found that chemical abortions carried substantially higher rates of medical complications than surgical abortions.

So far, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, a Republican, has declined to comment on the lawsuit.