In a highly anticipated announcement, The United States Supreme Court said today that it will hear oral arguments next spring related to chemical abortion, specifically about safety restrictions that should or should not be in place.
In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) extended the use of mifepristone, the first of two drugs a woman takes to end a baby's life, from seven to 10 weeks of pregnancy. Additionally, the FDA reduced the number of in-person visits required from three to one and removed the in-person visit requirement altogether in 2021, allowing women to receive mifepristone through the mail. The Agency also expanded the kinds of providers who can prescribe abortion drugs.
MCFL President Myrna Maloney Flynn praised the Court's decision to hear oral arguments, saying, "The justices not only understand potential dangers of chemical abortion for women but also that the FDA chose to overlook those risk factors in 2016 and again in 2021. The FDA removed common sense safeguards, including that a woman be seen in person before taking mifepristone. We are hopeful that the Court will rule in a way that protects women," Maloney Flynn said.
"Abortion has always been a revenue generator. Removal of safety standards only adds to providers' profit motives. More women in crisis pregnancies are turning to chemical abortion than ever before. Most do not know they have options or how to find compassionate support, so they make what they think is their only choice. And now that every public college and university campus in Massachusetts is required to stock abortion pills, that trend will continue here -- unless women learn the truth," she continued.
"Women deserve to know their options when faced with unplanned pregnancies, instead of being sold lies and rushed into often unsafe and irreversible decisions. Abortion Pill Rescue is one solution too few women are aware of, for example. Our pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) offer help to women in need, free of charge and without judgment, at what might be the darkest time of their lives. And though PRCs do not offer chemical abortion, they do provide comprehensive information on it, including extreme risks that women often won't hear of at an abortion clinic concerned about its bottom line."
Learn more about the latest abortion numbers in Massachusetts.
For more on today's Supreme Court announcement, please see the press release below from National Right to Life.
MCFL Team
Massachusetts Citizens for Life
For immediate release: Wednesday, December 13, 2023
For more information: Laura Echevarria, (202) 626-8825, [email protected]
U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments Involving
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Mifepristone
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will hear arguments this term regarding the Food and Drug Administration’s decisions in 2016 and 2021 to loosen regulations of the abortion drug mifepristone and whether the challengers have standing to bring their case.
“Today’s decision means the Court will hear about the dangers of the abortion drug combination,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “We hope that the justices will reconsider the approval of this dangerous drug or at least reinstate the long-standing safety protocols.”
“The Biden Administration has promoted unlimited abortion since Day 1,” said Tobias. “Bowing to pressure from pro-abortion groups, this administration has worked to make mifepristone widely available, regardless of the dangers to women and the deaths of preborn children.”
The consolidated cases the Court will hear are FDA, et al. v. Alliance Hippocratic Medicine, et al. and Danco Laboratories, L.L.C. v. Alliance Hippocratic Medicine, et al.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the government agency that tracks the nation's abortions, approximately 56% of all abortions are done using chemical abortion methods like mifepristone and misoprostol.
Mifepristone is used in combination with misoprostol, a prostaglandin, to cause an abortion. Mifepristone blocks progesterone, leading to the death of the unborn baby, while the second drug, misoprostol, causes powerful, painful uterine contractions to expel the dead or dying baby.
The FDA recently weakened the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) requirements for the drug combination to allow it to be dispensed and even mailed by pharmacies.
“When hundreds of thousands of women take these pills, even a couple of percentage points of women hemorrhaging, dealing with infections, or ectopic pregnancy, means thousands of women desperately seeking emergency treatment, which may or may not be nearby,” said Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon, Ph.D., director of Education and Research for National Right to Life.
In April 2023, National Right to Life released a white paper Addressing Many of the Myths the Media is Repeating about the FDA’s Approval and Management of Mifeprex (Mifepristone) which can be accessed here.
In September 2023, National Right to Life released a second white paper regarding What the Media Missed in Its Coverage of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Decision Regarding Mifepristone which addressed many of the issues that will be coming before the court. That special report can be accessed here.
Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.