26 Mar 2024 SCOTUS Should Reverse FDA Approval of Dangerous Abortion Drug Mifepristone

This week the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that is key to the safety of women and children.

Over two decades ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of a dangerous abortion drug, mifepristone, and since its approval, both the Obama and Biden administrations have expanded access to the drug.

As former Vice President Mike Pence wrote in a Washington Examiner oped today:

In 2000, the FDA illegally approved mifepristone under rules that allow the agency to approve drugs that provide meaningful therapeutic benefits over existing treatments for serious and life-threatening illnesses, such as AIDS. Pregnancy, of course, is not an illness, and abortion is not a treatment. The FDA claimed otherwise, abusing its own regulation and illegally approving the abortion drug with tragic effects.

Chemical abortions are more dangerous to women than surgical abortions, as the FDA has known since it approved mifepristone. The rates of death from abortion pills are four times higher than that of surgical abortions.

Both the National Center for Public Policy Research and its Project 21 black leadership network signed on to an amici curiae (“friend of the court”) brief asking SCOTUS to reverse the FDA’s approval of the drug. Project 21 Ambassadors have also provided additional comments below.

Patrina Mosley

Project 21 Ambassador Patrina Mosley:

Today is a great step in the right direction toward acknowledging the harm and criminal disregard the FDA and the abortion industry have had towards women and unborn life.

Complete justice will be reversing this politically-approved literal poison pill.

Until then, the very least the FDA can do is to restore the safety protocols it removed that have extinguished two lives at the same time — both mother and child — over the years.

Horace Cooper

Project 21 Chairman Horace Cooper:

Every innocent human life is sacred. There is none more innocent than the unborn. Project 21 supports ending the FDA’s attempt to radically expand the use of mifepristone into some sort of “morning after” abortion pill.

There are real safety concerns about the widespread use of this dangerous drug — not just with the unborn but with their mothers.  And pro-life doctors shouldn’t be forced to finish abortions that failed to complete due to the inappropriate administration of this drug.  It violates their consciences and makes them an accessory to an evil act.

We urge the Supreme Court to send the FDA back to the drawing board, instead of foisting this toxic drug on America.

Stacy Washington

Project 21 Ambassador Stacy Washington:

As the Supreme Court of the United States considers whether or not to allow the widespread use of the abortion drug mifepristone, we must note the significance of the following:

Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, is a medication typically used in combination with misoprostol during pregnancy to induce an abortion. Women who use this at home without medical supervision are subjecting themselves to a DIY abortion — which is ironically not safe nor rare, and should not be legal in our advanced society.

SCOTUS must not ignore the trials performed before the FDA’s 2000 approval of mifepristone. These trials showed significant failure and higher-than-acceptable complication rates. Post-approval testing continues to show problems with safety and effectiveness.

It is my hope that SCOTUS will deny the widespread use of this drug.