BY CARRIE N. BAKER | On May 8, abortion providers in Virginia, Montana and Kansas filed a federal lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking an order to maintain and expand access to mifepristone, one of two drugs commonly used for early abortion and miscarriage.
The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), comes in response to legal uncertainty caused by a Texas court ruling voiding FDA approval of mifepristone and a dueling Washington court order requiring the FDA to maintain access to the medication. Then the Fifth Circuit severely restricted access to mifepristone in an appeal of the Texas order. On April 14, the Supreme Court halted enforcement of these orders while the Fifth Circuit considers the merits of an appeal of the Texas decision. Medication abortion accounts for more than half of all facility-based abortion care in the United States.
“It is critical that abortion providers and patients obtain certainty in light of the chaos that is currently surrounding mifepristone,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of CRR. “We are suing on behalf of abortion providers in states where abortion access remains, but healthcare practitioners need protection for providing medication abortion.”
“We are tired, and we are angry, and we will not compromise or sit idly by as anti-abortion opportunists continue to attempt to block the safest, most effective, and preferred method of medication abortion in this country,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president & CEO of Whole Woman’s Health and Whole Woman’s Health Alliance. “Our patients deserve every single option that is available to them as they are making these choices for themselves and their families.”
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