Trump administration asks federal court to pause Louisiana’s abortion pill challenge

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — A key national pro-life group has accused the U.S. Department of Justice of undermining Louisiana’s efforts to roll back the Biden administration’s eased restrictions on mifepristone when it asked a court to pause the Pelican State’s challenge to that policy.

In October, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, alongside Rosalie Markezich, who said she was coerced into taking abortifacient drugs by her then-boyfriend, sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over a policy permitting mifepristone, a drug commonly but not exclusively used for early abortion, to be distributed by mail. The suit contends the policy enabled Markezich’s former partner to acquire the drug from a California doctor, whom Markezich says never spoke with her, and then coerced her into taking it.

However, in a Jan. 27 court filing, DOJ lawyers said a safety review of mifepristone is underway, and that such studies often take about one year. The plaintiff’s request to end mail-order distribution of the drug, the filing said, “may prove as unnecessary as it is disruptive, if FDA ultimately decides that the in-person dispensing requirement must be restored.”

“Plaintiffs now threaten to short circuit the agency’s orderly review and study of the safety risks of mifepristone,” it said.

A DOJ spokesperson told OSV News, “This Department of Justice remains committed to advancing President Trump’s pro-life agenda, including through dismissing criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits against peaceful pro-life advocates targeted by the previous administration, and using the FACE Act to protect pro-life pregnancy centers.”

“In this filing, the Department of Justice simply requested more time from the court for the FDA to complete its review of mifepristone REMS. As the Supreme Court recognized in a unanimous ruling less than two years ago, it is the role of the FDA – not the federal courts – to evaluate drug safety data and impose appropriate precautions,” the spokesperson said.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, one of the pro-life organizations that has pushed the Trump administration to roll back the Biden administration’s regulations on the drug, said in a Jan. 27 statement, that the “denial of justice by the DOJ is completely unacceptable.”

“It slams the door on women like Rosalie Markezich and their babies, who are suffering very real harm as the Trump-Vance administration refuses to reimplement basic guardrails on deadly mail-order abortion drugs. Abortion drugs accessible by mail are killing more Americans than fentanyl, cocaine or heroin combined,” she said. “Women and children are dying and do not have ‘a year or more’ to wait on the FDA. They deserve safeguards NOW.”

Pro-life leaders including Dannenfelser have objected to a September decision by the FDA, which operates under the Department of Health and Human Services, to approve Evita Solutions’ generic version of mifepristone. The drug’s approval came despite previous indications from FDA and HHS officials that mifepristone would undergo a safety review. On its website, Evita Solutions calls mifepristone “an effective, safe way to terminate early pregnancy.” It was also the second time a Trump administration approved a generic pill for abortion, which it did in 2019.

More than six of 10 abortions in the U.S. are performed through a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, according to recent estimates.

But details about the FDA’s safety review have been scarce. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., told OSV News earlier in January that lawmakers were still seeking confirmation that review was in fact underway.

“As abortions in America go up instead of down, women are coerced, poisoned and ending up in emergency rooms, and state laws are undermined, it is states like Louisiana that are leading the charge to stop the mail-order abortion drug crisis,” Dannenfelser said. “The Trump-Vance administration should be standing with Louisiana and supporting states in enforcing their pro-life laws against unscrupulous drug dealers, not holding onto Joe Biden’s disastrous Covid-era policies.”

In a social media post on X, Kristen Waggoner, the CEO, president, and chief counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom, wrote, “In our lawsuit, Louisiana is seeking to end the illegal flow of abortion drugs across its borders, so it can effectively enforce its pro-life laws.”

“The admin should stand with Louisiana — not with abortion extremists like Gavin Newsom and Letitia James,” she said in reference to the Democratic governor of California and New York’s attorney general, both staunch critics of Louisiana’s abortion restrictions.

Murrill reposted Waggoner’s message, and added in her own that the FDA “admits” that its Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy for the drug “is flawed” but “claims that Louisiana can’t sue to stop the 1,000 dangerous abortions a month in Louisiana that the REMS allows.”

“That is an affront to our sovereignty and the dignity of women and the unborn,” Murrill said.

Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council and a former Louisiana state legislator, thanked Murrill on X “for defending Louisiana’s right to protect the unborn and their mothers,” and asked, “Why is a Republican administration undermining that right?”

??Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, told OSV News in an email, “Every day that chemical abortion remains widely available with essentially no restrictions is a day that sees more babies killed and more women harmed by these dangerous drugs.”

Lichter argued the issue was not “fringe” for the “vast majority of Americans.”

A Jan. 22 Marist Poll sponsored by the Knights of Columbus found 59% of respondents said an in-person visit with a healthcare professional should be required before using abortifacient drugs. The same poll also showed that 62% of Americans now consider themselves “pro-choice.” A similar number said they support legal abortion in the first trimester, when most abortions typically occur.

“Last week at the 53rd annual March for Life we gathered together a movement that’s highly motivated to protect women and children from the wildly unregulated abortion industry, and we continue to urge the Administration to heed the call to take swift and decisive action to end unfettered access to these drugs.”

However, in a statement, Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, which opposes Louisiana’s abortion restrictions, said, “Don’t be fooled: the Trump administration isn’t defending medication abortion — it’s just defending its own authority to restrict access to mifepristone if, when, and how it sees fit.”

“The state politicians attacking mifepristone in court and the Trump administration officials ordering a new FDA review are two sides of the same coin — and both are wrong on the law, the science, and public opinion,” Kaye said. “Any new federal restrictions on medication abortion would not only be medically and legally unjustified but deeply unpopular among the overwhelming majority of Americans.”

Dannenfelser, who is Catholic, argued that the FDA was slow-walking the study.

“Nearly a year ago, (Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) promised a comprehensive study of the real-world harms of abortion drugs, yet the FDA has slow-walked it out of political fear,” she said. “Now we are told it will be at least 2027 — well after midterms. That is unacceptable,” she said. But this study also should not substitute for plain common sense: Deadly abortion drugs do not belong in the mail with no in-person doctor visit, no ultrasound, no meaningful medical oversight and no accountability.”

“The more the Trump-Vance administration drags its feet, the worse it is for them ahead of midterms,” she argued. “As we saw at the March for Life, pro-life voters are watching and expect action. Ignoring the pro-life base is a tremendous miscalculation. Seven in 10 voters overall, including 57% of liberal voters, agree Biden’s Covid mail-order abortion drug rule must go. No more delays — at a minimum, the Trump-Vance administration must re-establish in-person doctor visits immediately.”

The court filing comes after Vice President JD Vance told participants at the 53rd annual March for Life in Washington Jan. 23 that President Donald Trump is their “ally” in the White House, amid concerns from some in the pro-life movement about remaining policy priorities just over a year into Trump’s second term in the White House.

Pro-life leaders who spoke with OSV News at that event pointed to recent announcements from the White House including a review of allegations Planned Parenthood illegally received $88 million in COVID-19 pandemic-related loans, National Institutes of Health cuts to funding for research using aborted fetal tissue, and an expansion of the Mexico City policy — which prohibits taxpayer funding for groups that perform elective abortions overseas — to include U.S.-based NGOs operating abroad, as positive developments for their cause.

But they also said safeguarding the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding for abortion, and the reinstatement of stronger restrictions on mifepristone are significant remaining priorities.

Chieko Noguchi, spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told OSV News, “In addition to causing the deaths of preborn children, mifepristone is dangerous to women, and the conference continues to advocate for, at very least, previous safety protocols to be restored.”

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion. After the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, Church leaders in the U.S. have reiterated the Church’s concern for both mother and child and have called to strengthen available support for those living in poverty or other circumstances that can increase the risk of abortion.

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