The Family Foundation files Supreme Court brief opposing FDA’s abortion pill approval and disregard for women’s health

LEXINGTON, KY – Today, The Family Foundation, along with more than 30 pro-life organizations, filed a “friend of the court” brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s unlawful approval of chemical abortion drugs while a lawsuit from four medical organizations and four doctors proceeds.

The amicus brief highlights that the FDA approved mifepristone without regard for the significant safety concerns apparent at the time of approval and continues to pose a significant safety risk for women, which is made worse by the lax reporting requirements approved by the FDA.

“We urge the Court to halt the FDA’s unlawful approval of chemical abortion drugs while an important legal challenge from medical organizations and doctors proceeds,” said David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation. “By illegally approving the chemical abortion pill and imposing a dangerous mail-order abortion regime, the FDA and the Biden Administration have recklessly put the lives of unborn babies and the health of their mothers at risk. This must stop. The Court must recognize the truth that pregnancy is not an illness and abortion is not healthcare.”

On April 7, 2023, a federal district court in Texas ruled against the FDA and halted its approval of chemical abortion drugs in the United States. On April 13, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals kept in place the portion of the district court’s ruling that requires the FDA to restore previous safeguards for chemical abortion drugs. The FDA and a chemical abortion pill manufacturer then sought relief from the U.S. Supreme Court.

A copy of The Family Foundation’s brief can be found here.

The four medical organizations and four doctors suing the FDA have pointed out several ways the FDA’s approval of the chemical abortion drugs was unlawful and endangered women:

• The FDA never studied the safety of the drugs under the labeled conditions of use, ignored the potential impacts of the hormone-blocking regimen on the developing bodies of adolescent girls, disregarded the substantial evidence that chemical abortion drugs cause more complications than surgical abortions, and eliminated necessary safeguards for pregnant girls and women who undergo the dangerous drug regimen.
• The only way the FDA was able to approve the legalization of the chemical abortion drugs in 2000 was by characterizing pregnancy as an “illness” and arguing that these drugs provide a “meaningful therapeutic benefit.”
• When physicians raised concerns in 2002 over the approval of the two-drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol, the FDA ignored its own rules requiring a response within 180 days and stonewalled the citizens it claims to serve for 14 years.
• In 2016, the FDA extended the permissible gestational age of the baby for which a girl or woman may take chemical abortion drugs—from seven weeks’ gestation to 10 weeks’ gestation—increasing the mother’s risk of adverse complications. The FDA also changed the dosage and route of administration for the drugs, reduced the number of required in-person doctor visits from three to one, expanded who could prescribe and administer chemical abortion drugs beyond medical doctors, and eliminated the requirement for abortionists to report non-fatal complications from chemical abortion drugs.
• Further, in 2021, the FDA announced that it would allow abortionists to send chemical abortion drugs through the mail—in direct violation of longstanding federal law. This decision puts girls and women at additional risk from chemical abortion drugs since mail-order, at-home abortions skip necessary medical examinations to ensure that girls and women don’t have conditions that could lead to fatal outcomes.