Both the White House and the Justice Department held closed-door meetings this month with anti-abortion activists who want the president to use executive power more aggressively to cut off access to the procedure. … Students for Life emerged from its own meeting with DOJ officials optimistic, and sent a video message to its followers that … Read more
Abortion providers and advocates are making plans for future disruptions to reproductive care after the US supreme court temporarily continued nationwide access to mail-order mifepristone on Thursday while several legal challenges wind their way through the lower courts. Read more at The Guardian
Last week, as they awaited word from the high court about the fate of telehealth abortions, anti-abortion activists secured a closed-door meeting with Justice Department officials. There, they pushed the agency to revive a long dormant policy that could cut off virtually all access to both mifepristone and misoprostol — an 1800s-era anti-vice law known … Read more
The state argued it has a legal right to sue because, among other reasons, the FDA’s policy allowing medication abortion to be sent through the mail impinges on the state’s “sovereignty.” The hypocrisy is thick, Flaxman says, since the lower court’s decision didn’t just end the mailing of mifepristone to residents of Louisiana, but to … Read more
Drugmakers file emergency appeal to restore abortion pill access The emergency appeals ask the high court to temporarily restore a federal policy that allows the pills to be prescribed online and delivered by mail, arguing that failing to do so would cause “immediate chaos” and leave patients around the country in limbo. and The decision, … Read more
Anti-abortion Republicans in Congress have begun to be more aggressive about putting restrictions on the drug in recent weeks. Sen. Josh Hawley, R.-Mo., introduced a bill to remove the full approval of mifepristone, and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R.-La., announced an investigation into the drugmakers behind mifepristone. Read more at National Public Radio, Inc.
It’s not clear what comes next. Republicans have previously tried and failed to impose restrictions on mifepristone, which is used in more than two-thirds of abortions, through government funding legislation. “I don’t have confidence [the FDA review] is going to amount to anything,” he said. “My view is Congress now needs to get involved.” Read … Read more
Over the past few months, we’ve also seen officials, and the panelists they invite, in the Department for Health and Human Services push a very narrow prescription for how pregnant patients, predominantly women, should behave; one that looks down upon such noncontroversial things as pain medication, mental health treatment, and the use of formula to … Read more
In the lawsuit, filed late on Tuesday in federal court in Wichita Falls, Texas, the states’ Republican attorneys general argue that the FDA has failed to thoroughly evaluate the drug’s safety and effectiveness since its initial approval in 2000 and disregarded the risks to the women who take it. Read more at The Guardian
Three Republican-led states have moved to broaden their lawsuit seeking to restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone, aiming to block the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent approval of a new generic version. Read more at Reuters
