DOJ moves to dismiss or pause pro-life lawsuit seeking to reinstate abortion pill safeguards
Caroline MolloyThe Department of Justice (DOJ) moved March 6 to dismiss or pause a pro-life lawsuit brought by Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas that seeks to reinstate safety restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone.
The case, Missouri v. FDA, challenges a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy adopted under the Biden administration that allows chemical abortion drugs to be prescribed through telemedicine and mailed to patients. The states argue the policy undermines their abortion bans and weakens safety protections for women.
If the states ultimately prevail, a federal court would likely reinstate earlier FDA restrictions requiring multiple in-person doctor visits and prohibiting mail-order distribution of mifepristone nationwide.
In a filing made late March 6, DOJ attorneys argued the states lack legal standing to bring the case, claiming they failed to demonstrate a direct injury and did not first pursue available administrative remedies. The department asked the court to either fully dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction or pause the proceedings while the FDA conducts an ongoing safety review of mifepristone under its Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program.
“Intervenor Plaintiffs ask the Court to make the very sort of difficult scientific judgments that Congress entrusted to FDA while the agency is considering the same issues,” DOJ attorneys wrote in court documents.
DOJ officials indicated in January that mifepristone’s safety review could take a year or more to complete. Pro-life advocates warn that delaying the Missouri lawsuit allows abortion drugs to remain widely available while the review proceeds.
CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt expressed concern about the DOJ’s legal posture, noting that it has raised “understandable concerns among Catholics and other voters who helped build the coalition that returned President Trump to the White House.”
She noted that the landscape of abortion has shifted significantly since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, with chemical abortion becoming the primary means by which unborn children are killed in the U.S.
