In what pro-life advocates are touting as a major victory, a federal appeals court is allowing the Mountain State to ban the abortion drug mifepristone. In a ruling Tuesday, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld as constitutional a West Virginia law outlawing mifepristone. Nevada-based mifepristone manufacturer GenBioPro had challenged West Virginia’s law, arguing that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the abortion drug should supersede the state’s law. A district court initially sided with West Virginia, and the appellate court did the same this week.
“After the Supreme Court ‘return[ed] the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives’ in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization … West Virginia enacted a law prohibiting abortion in most circumstances,” Wilkinson observed in his ruling. He clarified, “For us to once again federalize the issue of abortion without a clear directive from Congress, right on the heels of Dobbs, would leave us one small step short of defiance.”
“We take no position on the wisdom or folly of West Virginia’s abortion law. As Dobbs makes clear, that judgment belongs with the people and their elected representatives,” Wilkinson continued. The Reagan-appointed judge provided further context, writing, “One can of course agree or disagree with the Dobbs decision. But that is not the point. At a time when the rule of law is under blunt assault, disregarding the Supreme Court is not an option.”
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Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, lauded the court’s decision, telling The Washington Stand, “Praise God for the court’s ability to adhere to the Constitution. In Dobbs, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that legislators have the power to protect unborn life. In West Virginia, the people’s elected representatives voted to protect both women and their children.”
Szoch explained, “Mifepristone is an incredibly dangerous drug — it is literally designed to take the life of a human being, an unborn child. It’s not shocking that a drug designed to do this also maims many mothers who are carrying that child along the way — sending more than one in 10 of them to the ER and killing others. Abusive boyfriends and family members have used the drug as a weapon to murder their unborn child by slipping it into the mother’s food without her knowledge. Mifepristone is not safe.”
“The rest of the country should follow the example of West Virginia and protect unborn children and their mothers from this horrific drug,” Szoch asserted.
West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey (R), who defended the state’s law when he was attorney general, said that he is “proud to see a victory in this case. West Virginia can continue to enforce our pro-life laws and lead the nation in our efforts to protect life. We will always be a pro-life state!” Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) also welcomed the court’s ruling, saying, “Thanks be to God!”
Erin Hawley, senior counsel and vice president of the center for Life and Regulatory Practice at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), appeared on “Washington Watch” Wednesday night to discuss the case and the ruling. She explained that GenBioPro advanced a “really sweeping” interpretation of the Food and Drug Administration Amendment Acts (FDAAA), arguing “that because the FDA had approved mifepristone and subjected it to the regulation that only applies to the highest risk drugs, that that meant no state could protect life prior to 10 weeks, which is the limit for the abortion drug.” Hawley said that if the court had accepted the abortion drug manufacturer’s arguments, “it would have indicated that no state could protect life before 10 weeks. Thankfully, the Fourth Circuit said that theory of preemption was simply wrong.”
Hawley also warned that federal agencies’ failure to enforce the Comstock Act was subverting pro-life state laws and allowing abortionists in blue states to mail abortion drugs to people in states with pro-life laws. “In 2023, the Biden administration took away the sort of last safeguard for women taking abortion drugs. And make no mistake, these drugs are dangerous,” Hawley explained. “But despite that, the Biden administration said, ‘We’re going to do away with the last in-person doctor’s visit,’ and that means that a woman can go online, or her husband or boyfriend or someone can go online and order the abortion drug shipped directly to your door.”
“Those drugs are flooding into pro-life states, despite those pro-life laws that should protect women and their unborn children,” Hawley added.
LifeNews Note: S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
