Democratic attorneys general file lawsuit against FDA over abortion pill regulations

A group of Democratic attorneys general filed suit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday over the agency’s regulation of abortion medication.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court in Washington State, claims that the FDA “hamper access” to the abortion-causing drug mifepristone by “singling [it] out  … for a unique set of restrictions.”

The restriction in question is called “Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy;” the FDA on its website says that system is applied to “certain medications with serious safety concerns to help ensure the benefits of the medication outweigh its risks."

In their lawsuit the attorneys general claim that mifepristone “has been on the market for more than two decades with only ‘exceedingly rare’ adverse events.”

The suit demands that the court force the FDA to remove its REMS regulation of mifepristone, which the prosecutors claim is a “safe, proven drug that is a core element of reproductive health care.