Shutterstock
CV NEWS FEED // The Trump administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion Monday seeking to dismiss a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for failing to properly regulate the abortion pill mifepristone—an increasingly controversial drug linked to serious harm.
CatholicVote Vice President Joshua Mercer reacted to the move by reiterating his organization’s call for the administration to better regulate mifepristone, but also pointed out that the DOJ’s motion could be calculated to better position pro-life cases.
“The Trump administration’s commitments and actions on the pro-life front suggest to me that this move by the DOJ could be a procedural strategy, hedging against ceding an executive agency’s power to take meaningful and lasting action on mifepristone,” Mercer said.
“But both Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and President Trump have signaled their concern about the Biden administration’s FDA failing to regulate this harmful drug,” Mercer added, “and we will continue to urgently call on them to address it. Despite the procedural questions raised by this case, the Trump administration must do all it can to protect women from the manifest harms associated with mifepristone.”
The case was first filed in 2022 by a coalition of pro-life doctors called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. The group challenged the FDA’s removal of key safety protocols surrounding mifepristone, including the requirement for in-person doctor visits before dispensing the drug.
The Supreme Court dismissed the case last year, ruling that the original plaintiffs lacked standing.
In response, the states of Idaho, Missouri, and Kansas moved to intervene, arguing that the FDA’s loose standards force their state Medicaid programs to cover the cost of treating women who suffer complications from the drug.
The DOJ now contends that those states lack standing to sue in the Northern District of Texas.
“Aside from this litigation, the States do not dispute that their claims have no connection to the Northern District of Texas,” federal attorneys wrote. “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.”
The DOJ also argued that several state claims—including objections to the FDA’s 2016 decision to expand the approved usage window from seven to ten weeks—fall outside the statute of limitations.
Although the FDA continues to call mifepristone “safe and effective,” recent evidence increasingly contradicts the claim.
A new study revealed that nearly 11% of women experienced severe or life-threatening complications after taking the drug, sparking growing concern among medical professionals and lawmakers.
In one widely reported case, a Texas woman discovered her husband had secretly laced her drinks with abortion pills in an attempt to kill their unborn child. He was later charged with felony assault and sentenced to prison.
Though the DOJ is seeking to end the current lawsuit, it acknowledged that the states can still pursue legal action in other courts.
“The States are free to pursue their claims in a District where venue is proper,” the DOJ stated.
Earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said President Donald Trump asked him to review the drug’s safety profile.
“President Trump has made it clear to me that… he wants me to look at safety issues,” Kennedy said during his January confirmation, adding that he would direct relevant federal agencies to evaluate the matter.