WASHINGTON, D.C.— Late yesterday, the U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Chambers issued a decision GenBioPro, Inc. v. Sorsaia. In the lawsuit, GenBioPro, a chemical abortion drug manufacturer, challenged West Virginia’s Unborn Child Protection Act claiming that it should be found unconstitutional on the basis that Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over state laws regarding access to mifepristone, one of two drugs used in a chemical abortion.

Judge Chambers rejected the claim, writing:

There is no disputing that health, medicine, and medical licensure are traditional areas of state authority. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the FDCA [Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act] does not preempt state action in the field of healthcare or medicine, absent a direct conflict.

Yesterday’s decision follows the August 16 decision by a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which determined that when the FDA loosened regulations in 2016 and 2021 regarding the drug mifepristone, it did so unlawfully, failing to give adequate consideration to demonstrated safety issues with the drug.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision will not impact the distribution of the abortion drug Mifeprex (generic: mifepristone) until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in.

“Yesterday’s District Court decision in West Virginia respects the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs and affirms a state’s right to protect life,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life.

“The plaintiff’s argument that the FDA’s authority extends so broadly as to circumvent state law is an overreach,” stated James Bopp, Jr., general counsel for National Right to Life. “The District Court rightly affirmed that a state’s rights cannot be upended by a capricious interpretation of the law.”

In yesterday’s decision, Judge Chambers left open the challenge by GenBioPro regarding telehealth abortions.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, the research organization affiliated with the abortion industry, approximately 54% of all abortions are done using chemical abortion methods like mifepristone and misoprostol.

Mifepristone is used in combination with misoprostol, a prostaglandin, to cause an abortion. Mifepristone blocks progesterone, leading to the death of the unborn baby, while the second drug, misoprostol, causes powerful, painful uterine contractions to expel the dead or dying baby.

The FDA recently weakened the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) requirements for the drug to allow it to be dispensed and even mailed by pharmacies.

Myths regarding mifepristone are addressed in a white paper National Right to Life released on April 5. Addressing Many of the Myths the Media is Repeating about the FDA’s Approval and Management of Mifeprex (Mifepristone) can be accessed here.

The decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District Of West Virginia can be accessed here.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

In Contrast with the Biden/Harris Administration Which Promotes Unlimited Abortion

WASHINGTON – During tonight’s debate, several of the presidential candidates for the Republican Party spoke about the right to life.

“Tonight’s candidates showed that the right to life is at the heart of the Republican Party,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “This is in direct contrast to the Biden/Harris Administration and the pro-abortion Democrats in Congress who want unlimited abortion.”

President Joe Biden, Vice President Harris, and their administration have aggressively promoted abortion without limits. Since entering office, President Biden has become the most pro-abortion president in history, using a whole-of-government approach promoting unlimited abortion.

“The Biden/Harris Administration and the Democratic Party have yet to hear of an abortion they wouldn’t support,” said Tobias. “Tragically, women and their unborn babies are the ones to suffer.”

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

WASHINGTON – Today, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld South Carolina’s 2023 Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act in a 4-1 ruling.

South Carolina Supreme Court Justice John Kittredge, writing for the majority, concluded:

…the legislature has found that the State has a compelling interest in protecting the lives of unborn children. That finding is indisputable and one we must respect. The legislature has further determined, after vigorous debate and compromise, that its interest in protecting the unborn becomes actionable upon the detection of a fetal heartbeat via ultrasound by qualified medical personnel.

“South Carolina’s new law will save hundreds of lives each month,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “We thank the South Carolina legislature and Governor Henry McMaster for their dedication to protecting the right to life. We also praise our South Carolina affiliate, South Carolina Citizens for Life, for their hard work and diligence in seeing the bill pass and become law.”

Governor McMaster signed the law on May 25, 2023, two days after the South Carolina Senate approved the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act in a vote of 27-19. Less than two weeks before, the South Carolina House passed the law by a vote of 82-33.

Lisa Van Riper, president of South Carolina Citizens for Life, stated at the time, “This act not only protects unborn children with a detectable heartbeat from abortion on demand, but also signals that the child in the womb is a welcome member of our society.”

According to the South Carolina State Department of Health and Environmental Control, there are approximately 1,000 abortions per month—largely due to out-of-state abortion traffic. Enactment of the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act is expected to reduce the number of abortions occurring in South Carolina to 200-250 per month.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Stay on Lower Court Ruling Remains While Litigation Continues

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), determined that when the FDA loosened regulations in 2016 and 2021 regarding the drug mifepristone, it did so unlawfully, failing to give adequate consideration to demonstrated safety issues with the drug.

Today’s decision will not impact the distribution of the abortion drug Mifeprex (generic: mifepristone) until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in.

“The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the FDA’s actions loosening the regulations involving Mifeprex were unlawful,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Our hope is that today’s decision will be affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“Today’s ruling, though not in effect because of the prior stay by the Supreme Court, would also reinstate long-standing safety protocols for women which were removed during COVID and made permanent because of pro-abortion pressure on the FDA,” said Tobias.

In today’s decision, the court noted:

We affirm the portions of the stay order regarding the 2016 Amendments and the 2021 Non-Enforcement Decision. In loosening mifepristone’s safety restrictions, FDA failed to address several important concerns about whether the drug would be safe for the women who use it. It failed to consider the cumulative effect of removing several important safeguards at the same time. It failed to consider whether those “major” and “interrelated” changes might alter the risk profile, such that the agency should continue to mandate reporting of non-fatal adverse events. And it failed to gather evidence that affirmatively showed that mifepristone could be used safely without being prescribed and dispensed in person.

On April 21^st, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order that stayed the district court’s order and returned the issue to the Fifth Circuit.

Justice Alito dissented from the Court’s order, writing about the original ruling of the three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit: “It would simply restore the circumstances that existed (and that the Government defended) from 2000 to 2016 under three Presidential administrations.”

The circumstances that existed from 2000 to 2016 were a series of protections meant to reduce the many dangers of chemical abortions.

In the lawsuit, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the plaintiffs argued that the FDA unlawfully fast-tracked the approval of mifepristone through a process intended for the treatment of life-threatening illnesses.

On April 13, a different three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit removed the 2016, 2021, and 2023 changes the FDA had made to the original safeguards it had applied to mifepristone. That three-judge panel left in place the original requirement that it be used only up to 7 weeks of pregnancy, the requirement of three physician visits, removed the ability for the drug to be mailed or dispensed by pharmacies, prevented non-physicians from prescribing the drug and reinstated the reporting requirements for non-fatal adverse events.

The Fifth Circuit action followed a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in the Northern District of Texas who issued a national injunction on the use of mifepristone in chemical abortions.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, the research organization affiliated with the abortion industry, approximately 54% of all abortions are done using chemical abortion methods like mifepristone and misoprostol.

Mifepristone is used in combination with misoprostol, a prostaglandin, to cause an abortion. Mifepristone blocks progesterone, leading to the death of the unborn baby, while the second drug, misoprostol, causes powerful, painful uterine contractions to expel the dead or dying baby.

The FDA recently weakened the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) requirements for the drug to allow it to be dispensed and even mailed by pharmacies.

“When hundreds of thousands of women take these pills, even a couple of percentage points of women hemorrhaging, dealing with infections, or ectopic pregnancy, represents thousands of women desperately seeking treatment, which may or may not be nearby,” said Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon, Ph.D., director of Education and Research for National Right to Life.

One of the common myths about the drug is that it is “safer than Tylenol” (or a similar argument is that it is safer than Advil/Ibuprofen). Dr. O’Bannon recently addressed this:

What you have here is a not-so-clever statistical sleight of hand, where advocates try to get you to compare the number of deaths from a relatively lightly used product with one that is used billions of times by people every year.

We are told that about 150 Americans die from Tylenol use every year, usually by overdose or simply taking too much over an extended period of time. At the same time, the FDA tells us that there have been 28 deaths that we know of among American mifepristone patients since the drug was approved in 2000.

So, 28 deaths from mifepristone in twenty years against 150 deaths from Tylenol in just a single year’s time? Sounds like mifepristone is safer.

But wait. That’s 150 Tylenol deaths against a backdrop of 25 billion doses of Tylenol in a year. We’re told that there have been only 5.6 million total chemical abortions with mifepristone in the U.S. since that 2000 approval, less than a thousandth of the sales of Tylenol in a single year.

Note what this does to your risk factor.

Using the minimal figures provided by the FDA, your risk of dying from taking mifepristone is about 1 in 200,000. Not large, but not negligible. And remember that your risk of a complication putting you in the emergency room is closer to one in 10.

But your risk of death from Tylenol is actually something like one chance in 166.7 million, even including those who overdose and fail to follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

This means that your risk of dying from mifepristone is about 833 times your risk of dying from Tylenol.

Additional myths are addressed in a white paper National Right to Life released on April 5. Addressing Many of the Myths the Media is Repeating about the FDA’s Approval and Management of Mifeprex (Mifepristone) can be accessed here.

The decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals can be accessed here.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

WASHINGTON – National Right to Life and Mississippi Right to Life hailed tonight’s primary election victory of Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann.

During the primary campaign, Lt. Governor Hosemann was wrongly attacked by his opponents as being a supporter of abortion.

“The voters of Mississippi have spoken and have shown that they respect the long-standing pro-life record of Lt. Governor Hosemann,” said National Right to Life Executive Director Scott Fischbach. “Mississippi Right to Life and National Right to Life are pleased that pro-life Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann will be on the ballot this fall. Delbert Hosemann has served well and deserves to be re-elected in November.”

Lt. Governor Hosemann was endorsed by Mississippi Right to Life and National Right to Life in the primary election and also for the general election to be held on Nov. 7, 2023.

“For nearly 30 years, we have worked with Delbert Hosemann to do everything possible to protect the babies and their mothers in Mississippi,” continued Fischbach. “Delbert is a true pro-life champion.”

Delbert Hosemann has always supported protections for unborn children and their mothers, and he opposes using Mississippi tax dollars to pay for abortions.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson, Lt. Governor Hosemann appointed a study group to hold hearings, hear testimony, and draft legislation related to issues facing women, children, and families in Mississippi, including adoption, foster care, child support, and maternal and child healthcare. In December, the group unveiled a series of proposals, much of which has since been signed into law.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

WASHINGTON – A vote to raise the threshold to change the Ohio state constitution from a simple majority vote to a vote of 60% failed to pass.

“Changing the Ohio constitution should require a higher vote threshold than a simple majority,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Sadly, voters rejected raising the threshold and opened the door to outside interest groups coming into Ohio and promoting their dubious values.”

Groups in support of Issue 1 were outspent nearly 3 to 1 and largely by interest groups outside of the state of Ohio. Of the top 30 donors and donor organizations opposed to Issue 1, all but four were from outside the state of Ohio. The greatest funding came from organizations and donors in Washington, D.C. and in California.

“Pro-abortion interest groups were among those who opposed Issue 1. They want to promote unlimited abortion in Ohio and want to change the Ohio constitution based on their sordid pro-abortion values,” said Tobias.

Tobias continued, “They also want to ensure that Ohio’s minor daughters can have abortions without their parents’ knowledge.”

An upcoming ballot initiative in November, if successful, would change the state’s constitution and enshrine unlimited abortion as part of the constitution in Ohio.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Legal Challenge to the Law Could Leave Idaho’s Daughters Vulnerable to Sexual Predators

WASHINGTON – In April, Governor Brad Little of Idaho signed a bill designed to protect minor daughters in the state of Idaho.

Idaho’s HB 242 prevents an abortion—whether surgical or procured using abortion drugs—from being performed on a minor without the knowledge of her parents or guardians.

Since then, misinformation about the law and its scope has made its way into the mainstream media. In July, pro-abortion groups filed for a temporary restraining order against enforcement of the law, once again prompting stories loaded with misinformation.

“If successful, the challenge to Idaho’s abortion trafficking law could potentially make minor daughters the victims of sexual predators and traffickers,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life (NRLC). “The only ones to benefit would be the traffickers who would exploit minor girls.”

HB 242 makes it a crime for an adult to transport a pregnant minor within the state of Idaho for the purpose of obtaining an abortion with the intent to conceal the abortion from the parents or guardian of the minor.

“There are those who would prey on minors and then conceal their crimes by procuring abortions for their victims,” said Tobias. “Idaho’s law is designed to protect minor daughters from predators and from those who would deny parents the right to be involved in their minor daughter’s abortion.”

Idaho is the first state to make abortion trafficking of minors illegal and the language is based on the model National Right to Life drafted in June 2022. Missouri passed a law in 2005 that prohibits aiding a minor in getting an abortion without her parents’ consent.

In Dobbs v. Jackson, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.