WASHINGTON – Lawsuits filed in North Carolina and West Virginia seek to place the authority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over any state laws impacting the use of chemical abortion drugs.

Earlier this month, the FDA formalized a decision made in 2021 to permanently drop the in-person requirement for the distribution of the abortion pill and updated labeling for mifepristone (generic for Mifeprex) that would allow pharmacies (both online and brick and mortar) to dispense the drug.

“While the FDA has the authority to permit the use of drugs and medicines, this authority does not prohibit states from regulating or prohibiting them also,” stated James Bopp, Jr, general counsel of National Right to Life. “This is another example of the Biden administration unlawfully trying to seize federal power and usurping legislative authority to advance their radical pro-abortion agenda.”

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

“In a chemical abortion, the perfectly healthy mother of a perfectly healthy baby ingests a drug that takes the life of the unborn child and has the potential to endanger the life of the mother,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Contrary to the abortion industry’s latest talking points, abortion is not ‘health care.’ Whether the abortion is surgical or chemical, the abortionist’s intention is the deliberate destruction of a living unborn baby.”

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.