On June 13, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the physicians and medical professional organizations challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to remove key safeguards to the abortion drug mifepristone. This unanimous decision followed the March 26 hearing in which the challengers, including AAPLOG, argued before the nation’s highest court that the FDA should protect the health of women and girls over the interests of the abortion industry.
The court’s decision centered not on the merits of the physicians’ arguments against the FDA, but rather on the question of whether the physicians are sufficiently personally harmed by the FDA’s actions to bring this case to court – also known as “standing.” (Here is an informative article on the topic of standing by attorney Erik Baptist, lead counsel on this case.) The physicians had argued that the FDA’s removal of key safeguards on these drugs regularly put them in the position to have to treat complications of chemical abortion and even complete the abortion process, which presents an encroachment on their conscience rights as pro-life physicians. Attorney Erin Hawley explains,
The court recognized that our doctors would have standing to protect their conscience rights. The government’s initial position was that federal law would not protect our doctors from being forced to participate in abortions. Yet at the Supreme Court, the government changed its position and said that federal conscience laws definitively protect doctors in these circumstances. This about-face explains why the Supreme Court parted ways with every other court to consider this case. And it resulted in the court recognizing that ‘[f]ederal law fully protects doctors against being required to provide abortions or other medical treatment against their consciences.’
-Erin Hawley, Attorney, Alliance Defending Freedom
AAPLOG CEO Dr. Christina Francis states,
Whatever your position on abortion, we should all be able to agree that women deserve excellent, evidence-based healthcare. Despite the fact that today’s ruling allows the FDA’s reckless actions to continue for now, nothing changes the fact that the FDA’s own label for these abortion drugs says that roughly one in 25 women who take them will end up in the emergency room. Women deserve real healthcare and the FDA’s actions were as reckless yesterday as they are today. As an organization dedicated to serving both our maternal and pre-born patients, we are deeply alarmed that the FDA’s recklessness is permitted to continue unchecked, risking the lives and health of women across this country. We are grateful for the states who stand ready below to hold the FDA accountable and protect women’s health.
-Dr. Christina Francis, CEO, AAPLOG
This is the latest of several developments in this case, which was filed in November 2022. Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision to hear this case, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled on a preliminary injunction filed by the plaintiffs, deciding that the FDA must reinstate the original common-sense safeguards placed on the drugs. The defendants challenged this ruling, appealing to the Supreme Court, which heard the case on March 26 this year.
Though we are disappointed that the FDA, for now, will be allowed to continue to place our patients in danger through these high-risk drugs, the Court did leave the door open for others to be able to make the same challenge to the FDA’s reckless actions. We are hopeful that the voices of the women harmed by these drugs will still be heard and we are thankful that by taking these actions, we have been able to speak on an international stage about the harms of these drugs for all our patients. Know that we will continue to stand for excellent healthcare for all our patients and for your rights to continue to provide that in your practice.
For more information on this case, you can visit the website of our law firm Alliance Defending Freedom.
