Oregon co-leads 18-state coalition suing FDA

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is urging a federal judge in Spokane, Washington to rule that the Food & Drug Administration’s restrictions on the abortion medication mifepristone are unnecessary and unlawful, and to order the federal agency to remove these barriers to the drug’s access. Attorney General Rosenblum is co-leading the multistate lawsuit with Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, filed last year in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.

“Mifepristone is a very safe drug, yet the FDA makes it unnecessarily difficult for people who need it. The restrictions (REMS) simply are not medically necessary. In fact, they put patients at risk. We are asking the judge in our case to invalidate the misguided and paternalistic restrictions imposed by the FDA,” said AG Rosenblum. “I am proud to fight alongside other Attorneys General protecting access to medications that are necessary for true reproductive freedom,” she added.

Judge Thomas O. Rice already granted the AGs’ request for a preliminary injunction in April of 2023, barring the FDA from doing anything to reduce the availability of the medication abortion drug mifepristone in the 17 states and the District of Columbia.

In his ruling granting their request for a preliminary injunction, Judge Rice found that the FDA likely did not follow the requirements in the law when it placed the severe restrictions on mifepristone.

The summary judgment motion, filed late Thursday, argues that the FDA is well aware of decades of data conclusively showing that mifepristone is safe and effective, and that medical experts have long opposed the FDA’s restrictions on the drug. By keeping the restrictions on mifepristone, the states argue that the FDA is unnecessarily and unlawfully limiting access to a drug that is safer than Tylenol, Viagra and insulin.

“We are continuing to fight for reproductive freedom, including access to mifepristone,” Washington AG Ferguson said. “The FDA must remove its unnecessary and unlawful restrictions on this safe and effective medication. Attacks on scientifically proven abortion medication won’t cease, but we will keep fighting for the right to access mifepristone in Washington.”

In addition to Washington and Oregon, attorneys general for Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, D.C. joined the case.