Extremists Continue Their Assault on Individual Freedoms and Government Policymaking

On March 26, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on whether mifepristone, one of the safest drugs on the market, will remain available for all Americans to take when and where they need it, including in the comfort of their own home. 

The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine brought this case against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Alliance is an organization founded solely to bring this lawsuit. Extremist activists established it less than two months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a case that eliminated federal protections for abortion. The lawsuit seeks to limit our ability to make private health care decisions, no matter where we live or what our doctors say we need.

Before the Supreme Court are challenges to the FDA’s scientifically rigorous, gold-standard approval process that made mifepristone more accessible over the years. Evidence shows that mifepristone is safer than Tylenol and Viagra and is critical to effectively manage a range of health issues, including reproductive health needs like abortion and miscarriage management. Access to mifepristone provides women the ability to make decisions about whether and when to start a family and provides life-saving care in many instances. As millions of women who have faced tragic situations can attest, mifepristone is an essential medication to provide medical care when facing a miscarriage. No woman should be denied access to critical medications because of activists and judges who are willing to place politics over science. 

The case also has the potential to jeopardize the availability of all the drugs in our medicine cabinets. The Supreme Court’s decision will apply to the federal drug approval process that impacts the availability of drugs across all states– not just those with abortion restrictions.

The FDA approved mifepristone for use in the United States more than two decades ago, and it has been in use since the 1980s. Together with misoprostol, the drugs account for the majority of abortions in the U.S. – and the bulk of those performed before ten weeks of pregnancy. Before 2016, the FDA had strict rules around how it could be administered: patients had to receive the drugs over three visits to a doctor. The agency eventually eased protocols around its administration beginning in 2016 after decades of evidence.

As the COVID-19 pandemic created an overwhelming need for virtual health care, the agency again changed its policy to allow prescribing it via telehealth. The drug has continued to remain safe and effective after these changes, and people can take it in the comfort and privacy of their own homes. Allowing access to mifepristone via telehealth also helps provide timely access to women with busy lives or those living in rural or medically underserved areas.

In the two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, activists have increased attacks on our health care, attempting to limit access to many more safe and effective treatments and therapies that we need. After they recently took on in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment in Alabama, the mifepristone case could be next in a slippery slope of judicial overreach. Everyone who relies on or may need an FDA-approved medication in the future should be alarmed about the Supreme Court overturning access to an FDA-approved medication. Rather than deferring to the scientists and medical professionals who evaluate safety and efficacy throughout the rigorous drug approval process, extremist activists will determine access to drugs. This means other FDA-approved medications could be subject to judicial challenges, and access to birth control, HIV/AIDS medications, vaccines, behavioral health drugs, and hormone therapies could be challenged.

Families USA calls on the Supreme Court to stand with patients, their doctors, and experts who know how to evaluate the safety and efficacy of medications rather than extremist activists who want to strip away more of our health care rights and freedoms.