Published

June 13, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, allowing the Biden Administration’s dangerously relaxed chemical abortion drug regulations to stand. The Court ruled that the doctors and medical organizations who sued lacked standing in the case. Among the issues in the case was whether the FDA violated federal law by dropping specific safety regulations requiring in-person supervision of abortion drugs by physicians and whether the distribution of chemical abortion drugs by mail or common carrier violates a longstanding federal law.

Texas Alliance for Life Communications Director Amy O’Donnell said:

We are disappointed by the opinion released today by the Supreme Court allowing dangerously lax chemical abortion drug regulations to stand at the expense of the health, lives, and future fertility of women and girls in our country. However, in Texas, the case does not change our laws. Texas law makes the distribution of chemical abortion drugs illegal and provides felony penalties for those caught illegally trafficking them. It’s important to note that the opinion should not be misconstrued as saying the relaxed FDA distribution regulations are safe. Despite the outcome of the case, this does not mark the end of our and others’ efforts to protect women and girls from the harms of chemical abortion drugs, especially when distributed irresponsibly.

Background:

• Chemical abortion drugs have been shown to have a significantly higher complication rate than surgical abortion. A 2009 peer-reviewed study from Finland published by the ACOG in Obstetrics & Gynecology found that chemical abortions have a 20% complication rate, four times greater than surgical abortions. Without the in-person physician visit requirement, allowing a doctor to confirm gestational age, whether the patient is Rh-negative, and whether or not the pregnancy is ectopic, women and girls are at risk of increased complications, including the potential loss of fertility, hemorrhaging, and even death.

• The FDA removed adverse reaction reporting requirements, removing the ability to track women and girls in our country harmed by the chemical abortion drug regimen and any increase in those reactions since the relaxed regulations were instated.

• The case has no effect in Texas because state law completely protects unborn children from abortion by both surgical and chemical methods.

• State abortion laws have completely protected unborn children from surgical and chemical abortions since the Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs in June 2022. After that, reported elective abortions plummeted from thousands per month to zero. Texas’ laws have an exception, allowing for life-saving abortions. During the first 19 months after Dobbs, doctors have performed 91 abortions when the pregnancy risked the loss of a woman’s life or major bodily function, according to data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

Contact:
Amy O’Donnell, Communications Director
amy@texasallianceforlife.org
512.477.1244 (o)

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