Alliance Defending Freedom, a non-profit, sued the Food and Drug Administration on Friday, asking the organization to withdraw approval for abortion drugs Mifepristone and misoprostol.
“Pregnancy is not an illness, and chemical abortion drugs don’t provide a therapeutic benefit—they end a baby’s life and they pose serious and life-threatening complications to the mother,” said ADF Senior Counsel Julie Marie Blake in a news release. “The FDA never had the authority to approve these dangerous drugs for sale. We urge the court to listen to the doctors we represent who are seeking to protect girls and women from the documented dangers of chemical abortion drugs.”
The ADF is committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life, according to its website.
“The FDA failed America’s women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States,” the group said in the lawsuit. “And it has continued to fail them by repeatedly removing even the most basic precautionary requirements associated with their use.”
ADF alleged that the FDA never studied the safety of the drugs under the labeled conditions of use.
“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 girls and women,” said ADF Senior Counsel Erik Baptist in a statement.
The FDA first approved Mifepristone in 2000. Then in 2016 it was approved in combination with misoprostol to end a pregnancy through 70 days gestation, meaning 70 days or less since the first day of a woman’s last menstrual period.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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