Texas and Florida, two of the most aggressive pro-life states, have asked federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk for permission to become plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, the first drug of the typical two-step regimen for so-called “medication abortion.”
The original lawsuit was brought by the Attorneys General of Missouri, Kansas and Idaho.
Specifically, the lawsuit “is challenging FDA actions that loosened restrictions on the drug in 2016 and 2021, including allowing for medication abortions at up to 10 weeks of pregnancy instead of seven, and for mail delivery of the drug without a woman first seeing a clinician in person,” according to Dietrich Knauth.
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In court filings, the states argued that “The drug’s availability by mail nationwide makes it impossible for the two states to enforce their abortion laws,” Praveena Somasundaram reported for the Washington Post.
“In the filing, Texas and Florida officials cited reports released this year on the number of abortions in the country,” according Somasundaram. “They wrote that mail-order access to mifepristone allows ‘illegal telehealth abortions’ to be performed in their states, which they say violates their laws.”
At the same time, last week Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton “issued cease-and-desist letters to multiple radical organizations demanding an immediate end to the unlawful advertising, sale, and shipment of abortion-inducing drugs into the State of Texas,” the attorney general’s office explained.
This legal action follows two tragic cases in Texas in which radical abortion activists and organizations facilitated men illegally purchasing abortion-inducing drugs. According to one lawsuit, a man used the drugs to poison his girlfriend, causing the death of their unborn child, and sending the mother to the hospital. Organizations like Plan C and Her Safe Harbor advertise abortion pills by mail and promise delivery to Texas within days, likely in violation of both the federal Comstock Act and multiple provisions of Texas law, including the Human Life Protection Act.
“Texas will not tolerate the murdering of innocent life through illegal drug trafficking,” said Attorney General Paxton. “These abortion drug organizations and radical activists are not above the law, and I have ordered the immediate end of this unlawful conduct. This is a flagrant violation of both state and federal laws, and we are going to do everything in our power to protect mothers and unborn babies.”
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.
