A federal judge scolded the Food and Drug Administration over its decision to loosen safety restrictions on mailing the dangerous abortion pill mifepristone that has killed millions of babies and injured countless thousands of women.
But the judge refused to immediately block the practice, instead pausing the case and giving the agency time to complete a review of the drug.
U.S. District Judge David Joseph, a Trump appointee in Lafayette, Louisiana, denied Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have halted the FDA’s 2023 mail-order rules while the lawsuit proceeds. The judge placed the case in abeyance pending the FDA’s promised “good faith, evidence-based and expeditious review.”
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“At this juncture, it is the completion of FDA’s promised good faith, evidence-based, and expeditious review … not ‘government by lawsuit’ that this Court finds to be in the public interest,” Joseph wrote.
He added that, given the limited information on which the FDA previously acted to loosen restrictions, the equities and public interest favor allowing the agency to finish its safety review.
The ruling keeps the Biden-era policy in place for now, allowing mifepristone — one of two drugs used in chemical abortions — to continue being mailed directly to women, including into states with protective abortion laws that protect babies from abortions.
Pro-life advocates warn that mail-order abortions increase risks to women, such as infection, hemorrhaging and undetected ectopic pregnancies, while enabling the destruction of unborn children without medical oversight.
The lawsuit, filed by Murrill, challenges the FDA’s removal of the in-person dispensing requirement. It received strong support from 60 Republicans in Congress who filed an amicus brief backing Louisiana’s effort to restore safeguards.
“Chemical abortion drugs kill innocent children and put mothers’ lives at risk,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said. “Safeguards protecting against coercion, such as the in-person dispensing requirement, must be reinstated immediately.”
The decision comes amid broader efforts to protect women and unborn babies from chemical abortion.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has introduced the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act to withdraw FDA approval of mifepristone entirely.
“The science is clear: The chemical abortion drug is inherently dangerous to women and prone to abuse,” Hawley said. “Yet major companies like Danco Laboratories are making billions off it. That’s why I am introducing new legislation to ban the use of mifepristone for abortion and empower women to sue its manufacturers. Congress must act now to protect the health and safety of women.”
Manufacturers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro intervened in the case to keep selling pills to kill babies. The judge denied their requests for dismissal.
