Doctors, politicians, pro-life leaders, and women’s health advocates rallied outside the United States Supreme Court Tuesday, calling for the overturning of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s reckless abandonment of care standards for women and girls with the deregulation of the chemical abortion drug mifepristone.
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Erin Hawley, American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists CEO Dr. Christina Francis, and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach spoke outside of the capitol building alongside more than 50 speakers demanding the return of basic safety standards on the high-risk drug as oral arguments opened for U.S. Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.
‘Recklessly Betraying Women’
A documented high-risk drug resulting in emergent care for 1 in 25 women, mifepristone was first approved for market use in 2000. At that time, a prescriber was required to provide ongoing medical care, an initial in-person visit to screen for complication-inducing conditions, and follow-up care to treat infection, internal bleeding, and other possible side effects. Since then, the FDA has removed those basic safeguards.
The FDA’s action in this case is unprecedented, said ADF senior counsel Julie Marie Blake.
“The FDA’s job is to ensure health and safety, especially when high-risk drugs are involved,” Blake said. “The FDA has failed in that duty; recklessly betraying women who have been taking chemical abortion drugs. We are unaware of any situation in which the FDA has approved any drug with this level of high risk, knowing that 1 in 25 women will
