The lawsuit, from states Idaho, Kansas and Missouri, is asking the Food and Drug Administration to roll back telehealth-based access to mifepristone that was first allowed by the pro-abortion Biden administration.
The states filed their complaint after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year preserved access to mifepristone.
"I was disappointed," Carol Tobias, of National Right to Life, says after learning of the Justice Department’s involvement in the lawsuit.
The legal argument from the Justice Department is over the three states' legal standing and the proper venue to sue.
Citing that argument, Tobias says she is trying to “remain optimistic” this will be the only step the Trump administration will take in the other direction.
“But they need to take a look at some of the newer, more recent information,” she says, “that has come out about how dangerous the abortion pill is for women."
Tobias was referring to troubling research on mifepristone complications conducted by the Ethics and Public Policy Center. After its researchers looked over insurance claims, dating from 2017 to 2023, it determined nearly 11% of women who take the two-stage pill experience serious side effects such as sepsis, infection, and hemorrhaging.
That alarming figure stands in stark contrast to the FDA and its clinical trials. It claims those serious problems account for less than one-half of one percent of women who take the abortion pill.
Tobias points out that President Trump, while on the campaign trail, repeatedly stated abortion is an issue best decided by the states, not the federal government.
“Okay, well now the states are fighting to protect the women in their states from pills coming in from out-of-state," said Tobias. "So I would encourage people to contact the administration and tell them that they need to look at the new evidence about how dangerous these pills are for women."
