‘Serious Mistake’: Trump Admin Moves To Dismiss Challenge To Mail-Order Abortion Pills

The Trump administration on Monday moved to dismiss a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s lax abortion pill guidelines, which have opened the floodgates of dangerous mail-order abortions. 

The Justice Department said in a 15-page court filing that a suit from the Republican attorneys general of Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas challenging the FDA’s decision was not filed in the right location and should be dismissed. The red states argue that the FDA overlooked the dangers of the abortion pill when it relaxed guidelines in recent years to allow for the pills to be shipped through the mail. 

In his filing, Acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakoth Roth mirrored the Biden administration’s position, which defended the FDA’s loose abortion pill regulations. He argued that the states’ “claims have no connection” to the U.S. District Court for Northern Texas, where the suit was filed.

The Trump administration’s decision will likely anger Republicans and pro-life advocates. As The Daily Wire previously reported, there are networks of leftist activists who ship abortion pills, often unregulated ones manufactured in foreign countries, into states where abortion is illegal. These networks send pills to anyone with access to a credit card and mailing address for less than $100. Purported users of the abortion pills often report on social media horror stories of doing the procedures, and recount stories of flushing large chunks of aborted babies down the toilet.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser urged the Trump administration to take steps to reign in the abortion pill, pointing out the documented dangers.

“At a minimum, the Trump administration should reverse the Biden FDA’s reckless nationwide mail-order abortion drug policy,” she told The Daily Wire. “We urge the Trump administration to reinstate basic measures that require real medical oversight. Women and girls deserve better than high-risk drugs with no in-person doctor, no follow-up and no accountability.”

“This isn’t health care,” Dannenfelser added. “It’s harm.”

The case originated after the Republican attorneys general had interceded in another case brought by pro-life doctors concerned about the FDA guidelines on mifepristone and other abortion drugs. That case was later dismissed by the Supreme Court, which said the doctors lacked standing, and the Republican officials revised their complaint. 

“At bottom, the States cannot keep alive a lawsuit in which the original plaintiffs were held to lack standing, those plaintiffs have now voluntarily dismissed their claims, and the States’ own claims have no connection to this District,” Roth wrote. “The States are free to pursue their claims in a District where venue is proper.”

Roth also wrote that the states failed “to identify any actual or imminent controversy over whether any of their laws are preempted.”

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey responded on Tuesday to the filing by pointing to evidence showing the established dangers of so-called self-managed abortions.

“Beyond a reasonable doubt, the evidence clearly establishes that mifepristone poses a grave risk to the health of women. The most recent study says 1 in 9 women who ingest this powerful chemical will end up in the ER or worse,” Bailey posted on X. “Regardless of which venue is proper for a lawsuit, Missouri will always fight to protect the health and safety of women and demand the FDA acknowledge the data and reinstate critical regulations to prevent the needless loss of human life.”

At the heart of the challenge to the FDA was the out-of-control abortion pill black market that has cropped up following the end of Roe v. Wade.

“Removing the in-person dispensing protections enabled a 50-state mail order abortion drug economy—a world where countless women in Plaintiff States receive abortion drugs by mail later in pregnancy with no in-person care and go the emergency room in Plaintiffs’ States,” the Republican AGs wrote in their suit.

READ MORE: How A Leftist Network Of Websites Floods Red States With Abortion Pills With No Consequences

In addition to ending the life of the unborn child, the abortion pill often has health consequences for the mother. One recent study found that over 11% of women had a “serious adverse” medical event after taking the pill, including things like hemorrhaging and sepsis.

Another study from the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute found that the rate of emergency room visits following chemical abortions had spiked 500% from 2002-2015. That study was later redacted for political reasons ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on the abortion pill, the study’s authors say.

Reacting to the news of the move to dismiss, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), an outspoken pro-life advocate, said that the administration was making a “serious mistake.”