Three states file lawsuit to stop mail-order abortion drugs

Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho jointly filed a lawsuit Monday against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Health (DOH) to stop the distribution of the abortion pill via mail in their respective states.

According to the Washington Examiner, the plaintiffs are asking a federal judge in Texas to join their lawsuit with one already brought by doctors across the country, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA. In that lawsuit, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM), a nonprofit membership organization representing nearly 30,000 healthcare professionals, is asking the FDA to pull the abortion pill from the market due to the dangers it poses to women who take it. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is backing the group in their effort in that lawsuit.

“As someone who knows the state of Missouri and its people very well, it is encouraging to see Missouri, along with Kansas and Idaho, intervene in this important case to protect the health and well-being of women and girls,” said ADF senior counsel Erin Hawley following the news of Missouri’s lawsuit.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey released a statement Monday. “Unelected federal bureaucrats do not have the statutory authority to approve the shipment of these dangerous chemical abortion drugs in the mail,” he said. “The FDA’s guidance is not only unlawful, but would cost the lives of both women and their unborn children. I am proud to be leading a coalition of states to halt the FDA’s illegal federal overreach in its tracks.”

In their suit, the plaintiffs maintain that the FDA has failed in its duty to protect the health and safety of American women who take the abortion regimen.

“Specifically, it failed America’s women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved risky, untested chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States,” the lawsuit reads. “And, it has continued to fail them by turning a blind eye to these harms and repeatedly removing even the most basic precautionary requirements associated with the use of these risky drugs.”

Studies have repeatedly shown that the abortion pill comes with considerable risks, with one report revealing that it is four times more dangerous than surgical abortion. Despite this fact, the FDA has proceeded to remove nearly all the safeguards in place to ensure that women who take the pill do so safely.