US States Suing for Improved Abortion Pill Access

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Facts

  • A lawsuit filed Thursday by a dozen Democratic Party-led US states, led by Washington and Oregon, challenges federal restrictions put on mifepristone, the abortion pill, by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).1
  • Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont are also part of the suit, which seeks to make mifepristone more widely available by allowing any doctor or pharmacy to prescribe and dispense it.2
  • Currently, under a list of restrictions known as the 'Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy,' healthcare workers and pharmacies must be certified to prescribe and provide mifepristone to their patients. The patients must also sign a form that says they used it to end a pregnancy.3
  • Mifepristone, which was approved by the FDA in 2000 and is part of a two-drug procedure for a medical abortion, accounts for more than 50% of US pregnancy terminations. Doctors have reported a surge in demand for it following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last year.3
  • The states’ lawsuit comes at the same time as the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a pro-life organization, is pushing forward with its suit in Texas against the FDA to overturn mifepristone’s approval because pregnancy was categorized as “an illness.”4

Sources: 1Reuters, 2FOX News (a), 3Washington Post and 4FOX News (b).

Narratives

  • Democratic narrative, as provided by Mother Jones. Mifepristone has an impeccable safety record, and there is no reason for the FDA to subject it to the same strict restrictions as several high-risk medications, which are usually opioids or anti-psychotic sedatives. In a post-Roe world, women need access to the gold standard in medical abortion, and they’re being put in danger by the FDA’s tight rules.
  • Republican narrative, as provided by Breitbart. Democrats refer to mifepristone as a medication but conveniently leave out the fact that it leads to the death of an unborn child, not to mention the impact it has on a woman’s body. Since mifepristone could be as dangerous as some of the other drugs the FDA holds to similar standards, this suit is based on an inaccurate description of the pill. It's a risky way for these states to flout newfound abortion regulations since the end of Roe.