The state of Louisiana has filed suit against the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for allowing the dispensing of abortion pills by mail—a move prompted by out-of-state doctors mailing abortion pills to Louisiana residents in violation of state law.
The state banned abortion at all gestational stages in 2022, with exceptions to save a pregnant mother’s life, certain serious health risks, and rare nonviable pregnancies. In 2024, the state also effectively banned the abortion pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol by categorizing them as Schedule IV controlled substances. That ban greatly restricts the storage and dispensing of such drugs.
But in 2023, the Biden administration removed a federal requirement that abortion drugs be dispensed in person. That opened the door to federalized mail-order abortion. The lawsuit against the FDA states that from April 2024 to June 2024, there were 617 abortions per month in Louisiana by way of out-of-state suppliers mailing the abortion drug regimen to the state residents in violation of state law. Those numbers were reported in a 2024 study by a pro-abortion group called Society of Family Planning.
The Biden administration’s decision to scrap the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), a drug safety program, also made it easier for more pharmacies to dispense the abortion pill regimen.
Louisiana, which is continuing to confront cases in which out-of-state doctors prescribe abortion pills via telehealth and ship abortion pills to state residents, is fighting the 2023 REMS to protect the health of its citizens and the rights of states to enforce their own abortion laws. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on Oct. 6.
“Louisiana has incontrovertible evidence that, because of the 2023 REMS, doctors and others are (as the Biden Administration intended) sending streams of mifepristone by mail into Louisiana for the express purpose of causing thousands of abortions in Louisiana every year,” the lawsuit states. “That conduct directly violates Louisiana’s abortion laws and prevents Louisiana from protecting the lives of unborn babies despite the promise of Dobbs. That conduct also has directly generated medical emergencies that harm Louisiana women and emergency room visits that harm the State.”
The lawsuit contends that mifepristone is dangerous to women’s well-being and health and provides examples of women harmed by such shipments, including plaintiff Rosalie Markezich, whose boyfriend mail-ordered abortion pills from California and coerced her into taking them. In another case, an OB/GYN, who is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology, reported treating at least 14 women since 2022 who had complications due to abortion drugs.
“For years, FDA required mifepristone to be dispensed in person,” the lawsuit states. “For good reason: As FDA continues to acknowledge today, mifepristone poses serious risks to women—so much so that the FDA-required label says that roughly 1 in 25 women who use mifepristone as directed will end up in the emergency room.”
Although the California doctor who sent Markezich an abortion pill was arrested, and another doctor in New York was indicted for sending an abortion pill to a mother to give to her daughter, a minor, many doctors have escaped such prosecutions due to new laws protecting them. States with such laws include California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, New York. Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
The lawsuit calls for the FDA to vacate the 2023 REMS, provide a preliminary and permanent injunction ordering the withdrawal of the 2023 REMS, and pay disbursements, among other requests.
Tony Perkins, president of the pro-life Family Research Council, applauded the step forward to potentially remove the 2023 REMS and to restore health and safety standards.
“While a transparent, unbiased review of mifepristone is taking place, abusers could be disarmed if the Trump administration would re-enact and strengthen the FDA safety protocols originally governing the drug,” Perkins said. “I applaud my home state of Louisiana for filing this lawsuit to reinstate commonsense safety requirements that the Biden administration so callously and dangerously removed. The Trump administration should repeal approval of mifepristone altogether, but it should also swiftly adopt a policy that aligns with its declaration that abortion belongs under state jurisdiction.”
Decision Magazine, founded by Billy Graham in 1960, works through its website and monthly magazine to communicate the Gospel, as well as inform and challenge readers about key cultural and Biblical issues. Decision is also a Contributing Publisher to Harbinger’s Daily.
Editor’s Note: ‘Murder By Mail’
According to a recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), a whopping 84% of Mail-order abortion pills are being shipped into pro-life states. These numbers showcase what experts are calling a “strategic plan” to circumvent laws protecting the unborn.
Franklin Graham, commenting on the FDA’s decision to make the abortion pill available through the postal system, referred to the actions as “Murder by mail.”
“Abortion supporters try to make it sound more acceptable and less barbaric by saying that it ‘terminates a pregnancy,’” Graham described. “But medication abortions, as they are called, are just another way to deliberately end the life of an unborn child—and that should be called what it is—murder.”
“Pray that the minds and hearts of people across our nation would be awakened to the great sin and heartbreak of abortion,” he implored.
