DOJ Asks Court to Dismiss States’ Lawsuit Challenging Abortion Pill Regulations

Government lawyers said the case should be dismissed because the states lack legal standing to pursue their claims.

The abortion drug Mifepristone, also known as RU486, is pictured in an abortion clinic in a file photo. Phil Walter/Getty Images

The Department of Justice on May 5 asked a district court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by three Republican-led states that sought to challenge federal rules allowing access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas filed the lawsuit in October last year, accusing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of acting unlawfully by loosening restrictions on mifepristone, a medication used to end a pregnancy.

In a court filing, dated May 5, government lawyers said the case should be dismissed because the states lack legal standing and that their claims have no connection to the Northern District of Texas, where the suit was filed.

“The states are free to pursue their claims in a district where venue is proper, but the states’ claims before this court must be dismissed or transferred pursuant to the venue statute’s mandatory command,” government lawyers wrote.

The three states had brought their initial lawsuit against the FDA by intervening in a case started by a coalition of pro-life doctors and medical groups, led by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. The coalition dropped the lawsuit after the Supreme Court ruled in June 2024 that they lacked legal standing.

On Jan. 16, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk granted Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho permission to file a new complaint against the FDA, enabling the legal challenge to move forward.

Government attorneys argued that the states cannot “piggyback” on the coalition’s lawsuit filed in Texas, as the coalition itself lacked standing and had voluntarily dropped the case.

The lawyers also stated that the case is time-barred, as the states were challenging the FDA’s actions from 2016, which fall outside the six-year statute of limitations.

“Regardless of the merits of the states’ claims, the states cannot proceed in this court,” they stated in the court filing.

In their amended complaint, the states said the FDA had failed to fulfill its legal obligations to protect public health by removing safeguards for pregnant women who receive mifepristone.

They pointed to the agency’s actions from 2016 that allowed pregnant women to take the abortion drug up to 10 weeks’ gestation, rather than seven weeks, enabled non-doctors to prescribe chemical abortions, and stopped requiring in-person doctor office visits. In 2021, the agency allowed abortion providers to dispense abortion medication by mail.

These policy changes, the states argue, increase the potential for complications and strain health care systems, as more patients may require emergency care due to adverse reactions.

“Women face severe bleeding, ruptured ectopic pregnancies, and life threatening infections because the FDA recklessly removed in-person safety standards that it once provided,” the amended complaint states.

The states also argued that the FDA’s actions infringed on their sovereignty, noting that its policies enabled out-of-state abortion drug providers to evade state regulations.

The Epoch Times reached out to attorneys general of Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.