Photo: ROBYN BECK / AFP / Getty Images
A coalition of medical groups and providers who oppose the right to abortion sued the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday, challenging the approval of mifepristone, a pill used in medical abortions, for decades.
The medicine-induced abortion, the most common abortion method in the United States, it has become an increasingly contentious issue since Roe v. Wade was struck down in June.
Attorneys for the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Amarillo, on behalf of four anti-abortion groups and four physicians.
The lawsuit claims that the FDA lacked the authority to approve the drug, it did not properly studied and that the drug is not safe, according to The Washington Post. More than half of abortions in the United States are performed with mifepristone.
The “FDA failed America’s women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved the use of chemical abortion drugs in the United States” the lawsuit says. The lawsuit says the agency erred in approving the drug under an expedited process that is meant to expedite consideration of therapies for life-threatening illnesses, not a condition like pregnancy.
Lawyers from Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the groups filing the lawsuit, were part of the legal team that helped defend Mississippi in the case that led the Supreme Court in June to overturn Roe v. Wade, that guaranteed the right to abortion federally.
The Biden administration and abortion rights advocates denounced the lawsuit.
“For decades, women in this country have had access to drug abortion approved by the FDA as a safe and effective option,” HHS said. “As [HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra] said, denying women access to any essential care they need is downright dangerous and extreme.”
FDA said it does not comment on pending litigation.
Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, which is needed to maintain a pregnancy.
The FDA approved the drug as safe and effective during the first seven weeks of pregnancy about two decades ago, then extended it to 10 weeks. The medicine is sometimes used after that, even if it is not what the label says. Patients follow the use of mifepristone with misoprostol, which causes the uterus to empty.
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