Boxes of the drug Mifepristone used to induce medical abortion are prepared for patients at the Planned Parenthood Health Center in Birmingham, Alabama, March 14, 2022.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
A federal judge on Friday allowed North Carolina lawmakers to defend restrictions on the mifepristone abortion pill, after the attorney general declined to achieve this.
Dr. Amy Bryant, a North Carolina physician, sued the state in January to dam its mifepristone restrictions because they fall outside Food and Drug Administration regulations.
State Attorney General Joshua Stein, a Democrat, agreed with Bryant and declined to defend state restrictions on mifepristone. Stein told North Carolina lawmakers that the FDA determined that restrictions like North Carolina made it unduly difficult for patients to access a secure and effective drug.
North Carolina Senate Speaker Philip Berger and State House Speaker Timothy Moore intervened to defend state rights. North Carolina split the government. The state legislature has a Republican majority and Governor Roy Cooper is a Democrat.
The judge ordered lawmakers to present lawmakers until March 24 to reply to Bryant’s lawsuit.
Berger and Moore argued that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June gave states the power to control abortion. They said blocking mifepristone restrictions in North Carolina would usurp the power of the state legislature.
The abortion pill has been a central flashpoint in the fight for access to abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe. The North Carolina case is one of several legal battles over whether FDA regulations or state laws will regulate the administration of mifepristone.
The FDA significantly eased federal restrictions on mifepristone in January. The agency has permanently removed the requirement for patients to receive the medicine in person from a licensed supplier.
The FDA has also allowed retail pharmacies to dispense the pills so long as they are certified under the federal monitoring program. Patients need a prescription from a licensed healthcare skilled to acquire a medical abortion.
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The FDA changes allow patients to acquire a prescription through a telehealth provider and have the medication delivered by mail.
North Carolina regulations are stricter than FDA regulations. The state requires that patients receive mifepristone in person from a physician at a specially certified facility. The doctor should be physically present when the patient is taking mifepristone. Women must also wait 72 hours after signing the consent form before the doctor can administer the pill.
Mifepristone, used in combination with misoprostol, is the commonest method of abortion in the United States, accounting for about half of all abortions.
Doctors in Texas who oppose abortion have asked a federal judge to order the FDA to withdraw greater than twenty years of approval for an abortion pill. One pill manufacturer, GenBioPro, is suing West Virginia to overturn its abortion ban.
Democratic Attorneys General asked a Washington federal judge to declare the remaining FDA restrictions on mifepristone unconstitutional.