In 2000, the FDA approved mifepristone, the first of a two-drug protocol used to kill babies through the 10th week of pregnancy, as a “safe and effective” means of abortion. But in their fervor to provide an “easy,” non-surgical option for abortion, did they bypass serious safety concerns that put women at risk? That’s what Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM), an organization composed of pro-life doctors and medical professionals, is arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark case that could change the face of the abortion industry.
After the FDA’s initial approval put the drug on the market in 2000, they continued to deregulate the dangerous drug in 2016 and 2021, first allowing healthcare providers who are not physicians to prescribe the drug, then allowing it to be prescribed over video call and sent in the mail. The FDA ignored numerous safety concerns to increase access to mifepristone, putting countless women in danger.
In the case currently before the Supreme Court, AHM is arguing that the FDA acted unlawfully in 2016 and 2021 when they continued to deregulate a drug that had well-documented safety concerns. The FDA is arguing that AHM does not have standing to bring this case in front of the court under Article III because doctors no longer prescribe mifepristone and thus are not “regulated in any relevant way under FDA’s decisions here” and “stand at a far distance from the upstream regulatory action they are challenging.”
The attorney representing AHM responded to the issue of standing by stating: “Article III is satisfied here because one, the FDA relies on OB hospitalists to care for women harmed by abortion drugs. Two, the FDA concedes that between 2.9 and 4.6 percent of women will end up in the emergency room. And three, the FDA acknowledges that women are even more likely to need surgical intervention and other medical care without an in-person visit.”
According to Liberty Counsel, this case could be decided on the issue of standing alone. A decision from the Supreme Court is expected by the end of June. If they rule that AHM does not have standing, the case will be dismissed.
The other factor this case is centered on is whether or not the FDA’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious” when approving the drug in 2000.
Mifepristone’s safety concerns are well documented, and have been for decades. The FDA blindly approved the drug in order to increase profits for the abortion industry, and after 16 years of disastrous results they did not move to increase regulations or pull the drug off the market, they moved to make the drug even more accessible and even more dangerous by taking doctors out of the picture.
“RU-486, otherwise known as mifepristone, has an FDA warning for causing drug toxicity/overdose, ruptured ectopic tubes, hemorrhage, and more,” Liberty Counsel explained. “From February 2019 to September 2020 alone, the drug killed 3,197 women. Among the other thousands of adverse injuries reported during the same period, 2/3 of women who did not die of RU-486’s adverse events required surgery to save their life and future fertility.”
A single clinic in New York is sending out up to 10,000 abortion pills every month, many to women who live in states where the drug is banned, and raking in over $5 million a month while doing so. The abortion industry is thriving on the pain and suffering of women and will stop at nothing to increase profits. It’s time to hold the FDA accountable for their complicit involvement in supporting this corrupt industry.
