Center Files Lawsuit to Ensure Access to Abortion Drug in Three States
Lawsuit seeks to protect mifepristone access in Virginia, Montana, and Kansas in light of the drug’s legal uncertainty.
The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit today on behalf of independent abortion providers that seeks to preserve long-term access to the abortion medication mifepristone in Virginia, Montana, and Kansas.
The case, filed in federal district court in Virginia, seeks to block unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone. At a minimum, plaintiffs are requesting that the court maintain the same degree of access to mifepristone that existed prior to the April 7 order by a federal district court in Texas that attempted to block the FDA’s long-standing approval of the drug. That access has been temporarily restored due to a stay by the U.S. Supreme Court while the case proceeds at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but providers expect the chaos to continue regarding mifepristone’s availability.
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Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA
Learn more about the case filed by anti-abortion advocates challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.
Mifepristone is part of a two-pill regimen for medication abortion and was first approved in 2000. It has established a well-documented safety record, as demonstrated by its real-world use by more than five million people and hundreds of additional high-quality studies.
The case argues for parallel relief to that granted to the plaintiff states in State of Washington v. FDA after a ruling by a federal district court in Washington, also announced April 7, ordered the FDA not to make any changes that would restrict access to mifepristone in 17 states and the District of Columbia.
“The anti-abortion movement has come for medication abortion access in every state in the country. We are suing on behalf of abortion providers in states where abortion access remains, but healthcare practitioners need protection for providing medication abortion. Anti-abortion extremists have gone so far as to seek to override the FDA’s scientific judgment decades ago that mifepristone is safe and effective,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “It is critical that abortion providers and patients obtain certainty in light of the chaos that is currently surrounding mifepristone.”
The independent abortion providers being represented by the Center in this case—Whole Woman’s Health clinics in Virginia; Blue Mountain Clinic in Montana; All Families Healthcare and Helen Weems in Montana; and Trust Women in Kansas—operate in states that do not fall under the Washington court’s jurisdiction and therefore are not protected by that court’s order. Many lawmakers in the three states are hostile to abortion rights, posing further risks to providers’ abilities to provide abortion services to their patients seeking care.
“Over the last few months, access to mifepristone has been repeatedly disrupted by one legal development after another, creating chaos and confusion for abortion providers and people seeking care,” said Rabia Muqaddam, senior staff attorney at the Center. “Mifepristone is an essential medication for patients, and we’re filing this lawsuit to ensure providers in these three states are able to continue their operations and provide their patients with the health care they need, without interference.”
The case, Whole Woman’s Health Alliance v. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), was filed in the Western District of Virginia, Charlottesville Division, against the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
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