On March 15, oral arguments began for the federal case Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v FDA. The suit was filed in Amarillo, Texas in November 2022 on behalf of several plaintiffs, including AAPLOG, seeking to reverse the FDA’s approval and subsequent expansion of the abortion drugs Mifepristone and Misoprostol. Erik Baptist, Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, the firm representing the plaintiffs, says:
Today, we asked the court to put the health and wellbeing of women and girls first by undoing the harms that FDA has caused by illegally approving dangerous chemical abortion drugs and removing necessary protections. The FDA’s approval of chemical abortion drugs over 20 years ago has always stood on shaky legal and moral ground, and after years of evading responsibility, it’s time for the government to do what it’s legally required to do: protect the health and safety of vulnerable women and girls. As we stated in court, the FDA never had the authority to approve these drugs and remove important safeguards, despite the substantial evidence of the harms women and girls who undergo this dangerous drug regimen could suffer.
The parties now await a ruling from the federal judge presiding over this case, Matthew Kacsmaryk, who may rule to remove these drugs from the market for use in abortion. Another possible ruling is to reverse the FDA’s 2016 decision to remove the REMS requirement for in-person dispensation of Mifepristone.
