The FDA’s Reckless Endangering of Women Continues — for Now

O ver the last few years, we’ve seen pro-abortion advocates ramp up their activism. One of the most aggressive recent pro-abortion efforts has been the FDA’s decision to approve the distribution of abortion drugs by mail — without any requirement that a woman ever see a doctor in person. The organization I lead — Alliance Defending Freedom — challenged that action on behalf of doctors who are caring for the women harmed by the FDA’s unlawful actions.

The U.S. Supreme Court just ruled in our case. Unfortunately, the Court said that the doctors we represent cannot challenge the FDA’s recklessness. We are disappointed that the court did not address the FDA’s unlawful removal of the requirement for in-person doctor visits.

But there is some good news in the decision. For one thing, the court clearly affirmed that “federal law fully protects doctors against being required to provide abortions or other medical treatment against their consciences.”

This is a win for the conscience rights of medical professionals.

Consider how we got to this point. Around the time that this case began, the federal government’s position was that federal law would not protect our doctors from being forced to participate in abortions. Yet, at the Supreme Court, the government changed its tune and said that federal conscience laws definitively protect doctors in these circumstances. This about-face explains why the Supreme Court parted ways with every other court to consider this case.

Lawsuits typically back government officials into a corner. That often forces them to concede points that they would prefer not to address. In this case, the government was desperate to avoid having the Supreme Court review the lawfulness of the FDA’s actions, so the FDA went out of its way to admit that federal law provides broad conscience protections for medical professionals. And now, the Supreme Court has affirmed those protections.

Meanwhile, women and girls continue to be harmed by what the FDA has done. The FDA’s own label says that roughly one in 25 women who take abortion drugs will end up in the emergency room — a dangerous reality that the doctors we represent in this case know all too well. Despite this, the FDA recklessly leaves women and girls to take these high-risk drugs all alone in their homes or dorm rooms without requiring the ongoing, in-person care of a doctor.

As a result of the FDA’s removal of the necessary in-person doctor visits that protected women’s health and safety, an increasing rate of women are suffering injuries and complications after taking abortion drugs. And they’re more likely to end up in the emergency rooms of the hospitals where our doctor clients work. This is not a bug in the FDA’s protocol for abortion drugs but part of its very design.

Although the Supreme Court said our clients could not bring this challenge, we will continue to do our part to ensure that the FDA prioritizes women’s health over the abortion industry’s bottom line. Why? Because women deserve the ongoing, in-person care of a doctor when taking high-risk drugs.

And all hope is not lost in the quest to restore these critical safeguards for women. Three states — Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas — are also parties in the case. They stand ready to hold the FDA accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of women and girls across this country, so the case will continue.

More broadly, many women are bravely speaking out about their experiences with abortion drugs, sharing heartbreaking stories. Women like Elizabeth Gillette, who talks about being shocked and traumatized after going through a chemical abortion alone, at home. Women like Dora, Patricia, Leslie, and so many others who recount their severe bleeding and pain, not to mention emotional and psychological turmoil. Or Catherine Herring, who shares the frightening story of her estranged husband spiking her drink with abortion-inducing drugs, unbeknownst to her.

It is for the sake of these women — and thousands like them — that we will continue to bring into the light what the abortion industry prefers to remain in darkness. Not only will we continue to tell of the dangers of these abortion drugs and the FDA’s unlawfulness in regulating them, but we will also support the states’ ongoing efforts to hold the FDA accountable.