The state of Louisiana, joined by the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and a Louisiana resident, has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The suit challenges the FDA’s decision to permanently remove the in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion drug mifepristone, arguing that the move enables pro-abortion activists and doctors to mail high-risk drugs into states that have banned or heavily restricted abortion, thus subverting state law and putting women at risk.
Lawsuit Challenges FDA’s 2023 Policy Change
The legal action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Lafayette Division, takes aim at the Biden administration’s 2023 directive to the FDA. That directive permanently eliminated the requirement for an in-person visit as part of the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for mifepristone.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill condemned the FDA’s action. “Out-of-state abortion drug peddlers are violating the criminal laws of Louisiana and other states across the country that choose life. They aren’t providing healthcare, they’re drug dealers,” Murrill stated. She stressed the importance of restoring the in-person safeguard to check for life-threatening conditions like ectopic pregnancy and to help prevent reproductive coercion.
Resident Details Coercion After Boyfriend Obtained Drugs by Mail
The suit includes Louisiana resident Rosalie Markezich, who described feeling “trapped and coerced” after taking abortion drugs in October 2023 that her boyfriend obtained via mail from a California doctor. Markezich alleges she did not want the abortion but faced immense pressure and feared for her safety.
“If the Biden FDA had not removed in-person dispensing, my then-boyfriend would not have been able to obtain abortion drugs and pressure me to take them against my will,” Rosalie said.
ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley argued the FDA’s decision was a “reckless political action” in response to the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, which returned the authority to regulate abortion to the states. “What they came up with was mail-order abortion drugs: a reckless political action that destroys unborn life, puts women’s safety in serious jeopardy, and completely subverts state law,” Hawley said.
Significant Rise in Mail-Order Abortions Cited
The lawsuit claims that the removal of the in-person requirement has led to a dramatic increase in mail-order abortions within Louisiana, a state that has chosen to protect unborn life. Citing a 2024 #WeCount report, the plaintiffs assert that out-of-state doctors were responsible for an average of 617 abortions per month in Louisiana between April and June 2024 via mail-order drugs, with the number reportedly spiking to 800 abortions in December 2023.
Plaintiffs argue that the elimination of the in-person visit not only increases medical risks for women, who may suffer complications alone, but also makes it more difficult to detect reproductive coercion because drugs can be obtained without a woman’s knowledge or explicit consent.
The state and ADF are asking the court to hold the FDA accountable for what they describe as an unlawful removal of a basic safety standard, which they claim the FDA itself admitted was “unsupported by the available scientific evidence.”
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