Good News: Chemical Abortion Pills Are Facing a New Legal Challenge and May Come Back to the U.S. Supreme Court

By: Mattison Brooks, originally published October 22, 2024, StudentsForLifeAction.org

Chemical Abortion Pills have made headlines in the last several months because of the deaths they have caused – most notably, the death of Amber Nicole Thurman. Thankfully, three states are joining a lawsuit to get these lethal drugs under control, which could make it back to the U.S. Supreme Court.

According to reporting from the New York Times, “The revised lawsuit was filed this month by the conservative state attorneys general of three states — Missouri, Idaho and Kansas — against the Food and Drug Administration in the same federal district court in Texas as the original case. It seeks to reverse numerous regulatory changes the F.D.A. has made since 2016 that greatly expanded access to mifepristone.” 

According to the New York Times, “it aims at the fast-growing practice of prescribing abortion pills through telemedicine and mailing them to patients, including those in states with abortion [restrictions].” 

This is great news, because the United States Supreme Court (wrongly) sent this issue back to the states back in June. At the time, Students for Life Action (SFLAction) President Kristan Hawkins said, “the Supreme Court’s decision to send this case away because of ‘standing’ was expected, but we expect the case to continue as those harmed by Chemical Abortion are MANY.”  

It turns out we were right. More and more women are now women being exposed to injury, infertility, death, and abusers.  

Sadly, it’s gotten to this point because of the Biden-Harris Administration’s abuse of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). During COVID-19, they set No Test, Online Distribution of Chemical Abortion Pills, and consequently, the pills are widespread to the point where now over 60% of all abortions in America happen with these drugs, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.   

The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) has an excellent fact sheet regarding the risks and complications from Chemical Abortion Pills:  

• Three to seven out of every hundred women who choose chemical abortion early in pregnancy will need follow-up care to finish the abortion, with as many as 7-10% needing follow-up care in the first trimester after 63 days of pregnancy and up to 39% requiring surgery if the regimen is accidentally taken in the second trimester.  
• As many as 15% of women will experience hemorrhage, and 2% will have an infection. The risk of incomplete abortion and infection increases with increasing gestational age.  
• Chemical abortion drugs are increasingly likely to send women to the Emergency Room (ER): in a study of the Medicaid population in states that fund abortion for low-income women, the rate of chemical abortion-related emergency room visits increased over 500% between 2002-2015.  
• Chemical abortions are over 50% more likely than surgical abortions to result in an ER visit within 30 days, with one woman experiencing an abortion-related ER visit for every 20 chemical abortions.  

Students for Life of America (SFLA) has an amicus brief in the Fifth Circuit, in a case in which the dangers of these drugs were front and center. The Supreme Court ignored that last time, but let’s hope they take this threat seriously going forward. It’s long overdue for a hard look at the dangers of casual distribution of pills designed to kill.

Mattison Brooks is Press Specialist and Online Editor at Students For Life Action.