Americans United for Life filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of 69 Members of the U.S. Congress in support of pro-life doctors and medical organizations in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food & Drug Administration. The brief urged the Fifth Circuit to deny the Department of Justice’s emergency request to block the district court’s suspension of the Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA”) 2000 approval of chemical abortion drugs, which goes into effect this Friday. The district court’s ruling will protect the health and safety of American women and girls from the dangers of the abortion pill mifepristone.
FDA Illegally Approved Mifepristone
As the brief details, the FDA subverted legally required patient health and safety safeguards in approving the chemical abortion drug mifepristone. The FDA, in a purely political and flatly illegal move, approved mifepristone in the waning hours of the Clinton Administration. The FDA’s 2000 decision to flood the market with the abortion pills was made despite an absence of medical or psychological studies on the abortion drug’s long-term effects on patient health and wellness. Over the past 23 years, the FDA has refused to reconsider the issue of abortion pill availability despite repeated petitions highlighting the illegal nature of its original decision.
Since the FDA’s 2000 decision, the negative long-term consequences of abortion pills to patient health have been vast and widely documented. As research has shown, chemical abortion related emergency room visits increased 507% over a thirteen-year period. Overall, chemical abortions have more complications than surgical abortions. Accordingly, the district court’s ruling will protect the health and safety of women and girls seeking these risky drugs, and the Fifth Circuit should not block the lower court’s order.
Abortion Pills Are Dangerous
“Abortion pills are fundamentally dangerous,” said Steven H. Aden, AUL Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel. “Abortion pills are deadly to the child they’re intended to kill and they’re dangerous to women and girls. The FDA would have discovered the abortion pill’s consequences if it had done even the barest amount of due diligence on mifepristone.”
“This case is about patient health and safety,” explains Carolyn McDonnell, AUL Litigation Counsel. “The abortion pill mifepristone poses grave dangers to women, and especially to girls. The FDA waived any requirement of pediatric studies when approving and deregulating the drugs, ignoring the biological differences between women and girls, such as girls’ developing decision-making capabilities and predisposition to have high-risk pregnancies. The FDA is playing a dangerous game to promote abortion-inducing drugs at the expense of patient health and safety.”
