MD AG joins brief to protect Mifepristone access
MARYLAND – Maryland’s Attorney General is taking action to protect abortion access is the state, joining an Amicus brief with 24 other states to demand the Supreme Court hear and appeal to protect access to abortion medication Mifepristone.
The brief follows a decision from a 5th circuit federal court that would have thrown nationwide supply into question.
The U.S. Supreme Court in support of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) and Danco Laboratories LLC’s petitions to reverse the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s ruling that reinstated certain medically unnecessary, and previously eliminated, restrictions on the medication.
Mifepristone is the only FDA-approved abortion medication, and the coalition argues that the Fifth Circuit’s ruling has dangerous consequences on reproductive health care outcomes, particularly for low-income and underserved communities.
“Our fight to ensure equal access to safe, effective abortion medication, which includes mifepristone, continues,” said Attorney General Brown. “Restricting the availability of mifepristone will harm people who have no other options for safe and affordable abortion.”
The brief highlights that the Fifth Circuit’s decision ignores decades of high-quality evidence and clinical research that shows mifepristone is safe and effective.
The coalition notes that if the Fifth Circuit’s decision is permitted to take effect, it could disrupt access to the most common method of abortion, harming countless individuals in need of abortion care or management of pregnancy loss, with widespread implications for the healthcare system.
The ruling could lead many individuals to undergo procedural abortion, push abortion procedures later in pregnancy, drive up risks, costs, and delays, and deprive many individuals of access to reproductive health care altogether according to the brief.
The coalition further argues that the ruling would create widespread confusion among providers, distributers, and pharmacies, and radically destabilize the regulatory process for drug approvals, stifling scientific innovation and imperiling the development and availability of thousands of drugs nationwide.
