Center Sues Trump Administration for Withholding Records on Abortion Pill
We sued the Trump administration for its failure to respond to multiple Freedom of Information Act requests seeking transparency about its re-evaluation of abortion pill safety.
This administration calls itself the ‘most transparent in history,’ but refuses to provide readily available information about medication abortion. What do they have to hide? We are demanding real transparency and taking the Trump administration to court.
Rachana Desai Martin, CRR Chief U.S. Program Officer
Summary
The Center for Reproductive Rights is suing the Trump administration for withholding information about its decision to re-evaluate the regulation of a widely used abortion medication. The lawsuit was filed September 5, after the administration failed to respond to the Center’s requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The medication, mifepristone, is the first in a two-medication abortion regimen. The drug has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2000, and extensive research shows that more than 99% of users experience no serious complications. But under the Trump administration, the FDA has announced it will reexamine the safety of mifepristone—which could be a pretext for instituting new restrictions on it.
The public deserves to know if the FDA is making decisions about medication abortion based on debunked information or in response to political pressure. The Trump administration is targeting a drug that has been FDA-approved for 25 years and safely used by millions.
Rachana Desai Martin, CRR Chief U.S. Program Officer
Context
Re-evaluation Timeline Suggests Political Interference
Anti-abortion extremists appear to have played a key role in driving the FDA’s decision to re-evaluate mifepristone.
In April, FDA Commissioner Dr. Martin Makary publicly stated that the FDA had no current plans to take any action on mifepristone—but that new data on the drug could change this.
Just four days after his statement, an anti-abortion group called the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) released a report on mifepristone, framing abortion pills as unsafe. This report does not provide a source for its data, has not been peer-reviewed, and was written by people with no medical or scientific background. Many sources have since debunked it.
The same day the EPPC report was released, anti-abortion Senator Josh Hawley wrote to the FDA Commissioner citing it and asking the FDA to restrict access to mifepristone. In May, Hawley convinced U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to commit to a re-evaluation, with Kennedy calling the EPPC report “alarming” and saying it “indicates that at the very least, the label should be changed.”
The timing of the administration’s interest in mifepristone and its reliance on discredited right-wing policy papers instead of long-standing peer-reviewed studies suggest that anti-abortion ideology is dictating the drug regulation process.
Rachana Desai Martin, CRR Chief U.S. Program Officer
About the Case
Seeking Transparency, Center Requests HHS Data and Records
The Center is seeking records that document these attempts at political interference and any resulting action the FDA has taken. It has submitted multiple FOIA requests for HHS records, demanding all communications among the agencies, EPPC, and the office of Senator Hawley (see Legal Documents section). Under FOIA, the public has a legal right to this information—and withholding it is against the law.
Undermining access to mifepristone is part of the Trump administration’s larger strategy of under-the-radar attacks on reproductive rights. Already President Trump has stacked his administration with anti-reproductive rights officials, giving them influence over federal agencies that directly impact access to reproductive health care—including abortion, birth control, IVF, and maternal health care.
We’ve demanded the release of administration communications on mifepristone via Freedom of Information Act requests multiple times. Our requests have been ignored.
Rachana Desai Martin, CRR Chief U.S. Program Officer
Medication Abortion Access
As Medication Abortion Use Rises, So Do Threats to Access
The use of abortion pills has been steadily rising in the U.S. for the past several decades. In 2001, medication abortion represented only 6% of total abortions within the U.S. healthcare system. In 2023, it represented 63%.
Since the 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade, medication abortion has become a lifeline for those in states where abortion is banned or severely restricted. As more states move to restrict abortion access, medication abortion will become people’s only option for care.
Medication abortion is under attack on many fronts beyond the FDA, including:
- Misuse of the Comstock Act. This is an 1873 “purity” law that bans the mailing of medications and other supplies used in unlawful abortion care. Even though this “zombie” law has never been used to prosecute lawful abortion, anti-abortion extremists have been pushing for the Trump administration to misuse the Comstock Act to target abortion providers with jail time—an item included in Project 2025’s written agenda. This would allow the administration to bypass Congress, the federal legislative process, and the will of the American people.
- State legal action. In 2023, the Missouri Attorney General filed a lawsuit challenging the FDA’s regulation of mifepristone. Texas and Florida have recently asked to join that lawsuit and are further seeking withdrawal of mifepristone’s FDA approval.
These attempts to restrict mifepristone are intended to strip people of their reproductive rights. With this lawsuit, the Center is working to ensure that the Trump administration must answer for its dangerous agenda.
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