Press Releases
10/13/2023
Attorney General Tong Urges Supreme Court to Reverse Lower Court Ruling on Medication Abortion
Coalition Argues that Lower Court’s Ruling Staying FDA Actions to Improve Access to Mifepristone Could Cause Devastating Harms to Patients and Healthcare Systems
(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today joined a multistate coalition of 24 attorneys general urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear and reverse the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s ruling reinstating medically unnecessary restrictions on medication abortion. The coalition of attorneys general filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) and Danco Laboratories LLC’s petitions to reverse the lower court decision.The Fifth Circuit decision reverts regulations to those in place pre-2016, reversing actions by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that appropriately allowed the medication abortion drug mifepristone to be taken later in pregnancy, to be mailed directly to patients, and to be prescribed by qualified clinicians other than a doctor. The decision is stayed pending a determination by the U.S. Supreme Court whether to take up the case. Due to proactive litigation Attorney General Tong filed with 17 states and the District of Columbia in Washington state, access to medication abortion in Connecticut was not impacted by the Fifth Circuit ruling.
“The Fifth Circuit decision ignores science and years of sound medical practice, reinstating needless barriers to medication abortion. There is no doubt that, based on facts and the law, this decision should be reversed. But I am not ignorant of the realities of this Supreme Court, and the damage they have already wrought in their reckless reversal of Roe. Medication abortion is safe and accessible in Connecticut today, but we must be vigilant, proactive, and aggressive in defending our rights,” said Attorney General Tong.
The coalition asks the Supreme Court to reverse the Fifth Circuit’s poorly-reasoned decision that restricts how mifepristone can be prescribed and dispensed. The amicus brief highlights that the Fifth Circuit’s decision ignores decades of high-quality evidence and clinical research that shows mifepristone is safe and effective.
The coalition notes that if the Fifth Circuit’s decision is permitted to take effect, it could disrupt access to the most common method of abortion, harming countless individuals in need of abortion care or management of pregnancy loss, with widespread implications for the healthcare system. Among other things, the ruling could lead many individuals to undergo procedural abortion, push abortion procedures later in pregnancy, drive up risks, costs, and delays, and deprive many individuals of access to reproductive health care altogether. The coalition further argues that the ruling would create widespread confusion among providers, distributors, and pharmacies, and radically destabilize the regulatory process for drug approvals, stifling scientific innovation and imperiling the development and availability of thousands of drugs nationwide.
Joining Attorney General Tong in submitting today’s amicus brief are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
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