Attorneys general from Missouri, Kansas and Idaho filed the lawsuit in a Texas federal court last Friday that seeks to sue the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and force the agency to restore old federal regulations on the drug.
The filing comes about months after the Supreme Court ruled against a high-profile challenge to the agency’s decision to increase access to the drug like allowing it to be sent in the mail.
In the lawsuit, states are asking that the drug’s use be banned after seven weeks of pregnancy instead of the current 10 weeks and for regulators to require those seeking the pill to go to multiple in-person doctor’s office visits.
On top of this, the lawsuit also challenges the FDA’s approval of the generic version of the drug.
Abortion is almost completely banned in two out of the three states filing the lawsuit — Missouri and Idaho. Attorneys’ general in both those states argue the lawsuit has legal merit because the FDA’s current rules on mifepristone “seek to undermine” state abortion laws and state law enforcement.
In the lawsuit, states claim that the abortion pills are “flooding” Missouri and Idaho and endangering the lives of women.
Medication abortion use has become more common since the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In 2020, medication abortions accounted for 53 percent of all abortions in the country, and by 2023 63 percent of abortions were medication abortions, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.
