ADF represents doctors and medical associations in cases involving the FDA’s illegal approval of chemical abortion drugs
In a groundbreaking lawsuit, four national medical associations and four doctors, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, are suing the FDA. for illegally approving chemical abortion drugs that are harmful to girls and women.
In November, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a guy on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Pediatricians, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, and doctors Shaun Jester, Regina Frost-Clark, Tyler Johnson, and George Delgado in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
The suit, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, challenges the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval, in 2000, of the chemical abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol by characterizing pregnancy as an “illness” and arguing that these drugs provide a “meaningful therapeutic benefit.”
The complaint posits that the FDA. has “failed America’s women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States” and has continued to fail them by “repeatedly removing even the most basic precautionary requirements associated with their use.”
The brief recounts how, in 1993, on his second full day in office, President Bill Clinton directed his cabinet to legalize chemical abortion drugs in the United States and then pressured the French manufacturer of the key chemical abortion drug, mifepristone, to donate for free the U.S. patent rights of the drug to the Population Council, an entity focused on population control.
It states that after receiving the patent rights to mifepristone, the Population Council working closely with the Clinton FDA., was able to obtain the agency’s approval for the new drug just over one month before the closely contested 2000 U.S. presidential election.
The filing contends that the only way the FDA. could have approved chemical abortion drugs was “to use its accelerated drug approval authority, necessitating the FDA. to call pregnancy an “illness” and argue that these dangerous drugs provide a “meaningful therapeutic benefit” over existing treatments.”
But, ADF attorneys argue that pregnancy is not an illness and that chemical abortion drugs do not provide a therapeutic benefit over surgical abortion. Furthermore, they argue that the FDA. “never studied the safety of the drugs under the labeled conditions” and ignored the “potential impacts of the hormone-blocking regimen on the developing bodies of adolescent girls in violation of the Pediatric Research and Equity Act (PREA).”
For these reasons and other illegal actions by the FDA. listed in the brief, the Plaintiffs have asked the Court to “protect women and girls by holding unlawful, setting aside, and vacating the FDA.’s actions to approve chemical abortion drugs and eviscerate crucial safeguards for those who undergo this dangerous drug regimen.”
In February, Pro-life organizations, 67 members of Congress, and 23 states filed 15 friend-of-the-court briefs with a federal court in support of the lawsuit.
ADF Senior Counsel Erik Baptist says, “The FDA.’s approval of chemical abortion drugs has always stood on shaky legal and moral ground, and after years of evading responsibility, it’s time for the government to do what it’s legally required to do: protect the health and safety of vulnerable women and girls. We and the many parties who are supporting the national medical associations and doctors hope the Court will agree the FDA. never had the authority to approve these dangerous drugs and reject the marketing and distribution of them.”
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the world’s largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, marriage and family, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
In addition to directly litigating strategic cases, the organization offers several world-class training programs for attorneys, law students, pastors and college students and has provided millions of dollars in funding for cases and legal projects protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
