Meanwhile, over 600 state lawmakers contend that the decision undermines federalism principles, a cornerstone of the Supreme Court’s pivotal June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This decision relinquished the federally protected right to abortion access, thus transferring the authority over this issue to individual states.
In their impassioned appeal, the state lawmakers emphasized, “The Fifth Circuit’s decision purporting to stay the FDA’s… modification decisions — and thereby limit access to medication abortion nationwide — comes like the proverbial bull in the china shop.”
Mifepristone: A Contentious Pill
Mifepristone, FDA-approved since 2000, is widely used in combination with misoprostol for both abortions and miscarriage management. The FDA, in tandem with Danco Laboratories LLC, the distributor of the name-brand version Mifeprex, petitioned the Supreme Court in September, arguing that the Fifth Circuit’s ruling not only disrupts longstanding FDA drug authorization standards but also erroneously discerns “standing where there is none.”
