On April 21, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed a lower court decision to reinstate key safeguards on the chemical abortion drug Mifepristone. Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Erin Hawley says the following regarding this decision:
“The entry of a brief administrative stay is standard operating procedure whenever the Supreme Court is asked to consider an emergency request like this one. It gives the court sufficient time to consider the parties’ arguments before ruling. We look forward to explaining why the FDA has not met its heavy burden to pause the parts of the district court’s decision that restore the critical safeguards for women and girls that were unlawfully removed by the FDA.”
–Erin Hawley, Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
This is the latest of several developments in the case Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, in which AAPLOG is listed as one of the plaintiffs. Here is a quick recap of the events related to this case prior to this development:
- In November 2022, the Alliance and several other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Texas against the FDA for illegally approving chemical abortion drugs that harm women and girls. As the lawsuit explains, the FDA approved chemical abortion drugs in 2000 without basis and have repeatedly removed the few safeguards in place on its provision to pregnant women over the past two decades.
- On April 7, the U.S. District Court approved a motion by the plaintiffs to halt the approval of Mifepristone pending the results of the lawsuit. The defendants appealed this decision to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
- On April 13, the U.S. District Court of Appeals ruled on the defendants’ appeal, deciding not to halt Mifepristone’s approval but rather to reinstate several key safeguards on the prescription and use of this drug that the FDA had gradually eroded without evidence since 2000. The defendants appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
We are so thankful to our excellent legal team at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) for clearly presenting the facts of how the FDA approved mifepristone for induced abortion illegally, ignoring the rules and duties given to them by Congress and we hope the 5th Circuit will uphold the ruling that they should be held accountable for that. This is a rapidly developing case that may end up being heard in the U.S. Supreme Court, so we encourage you to follow the latest updates on ADF’s website by clicking here.
