Trump DOJ asks court to pause lawsuit challenging FDA approval of mail-order abortion drugs
The Trump administration has asked a federal court to pause Louisiana's lawsuit challenging the mailing of the abortion drug mifepristone while the Food and Drug Administration conducts a safety evaluation, drawing criticism from the state's Republican attorney general.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed the request on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Lafayette Division, in the case of The State of Louisiana et al v. the U.S. FDA, et al.
The request noted that the FDA is in the process of “reviewing the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for mifepristone,” and the drug should remain available for mail order while the review is being conducted.
“Given this widespread debate over the safety of mifepristone, FDA has concluded that the best path forward is for the agency to reconsider the restrictions on mifepristone based on all the evidence before the agency,” stated the court document.
“Plaintiffs now threaten to short circuit the agency’s orderly review and study of the safety risks of mifepristone by asking this Court for an immediate stay of the 2023 REMS Modification approved three years ago.”
The DOJ attorneys alleged that Louisiana and others “would have this Court set aside the 2023 REMS Modification — all without the benefit of FDA’s expertise, and even as the agency is already reconsidering the matter in its review.”
“Plaintiffs’ requested relief may prove as unnecessary as it is disruptive, if FDA ultimately decides that the in-person dispensing requirement must be restored,” the request added.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill denounced the motion, posting to her X account that it is “an affront to our sovereignty and the dignity of women and the unborn.”
“[FDA] admits that the REMS is flawed but claims that Louisiana can’t sue to stop the 1,000 dangerous abortions a month in Louisiana that the REMS allows,” she tweeted. “FDA should stand with us for life, not with [California Gov. Gavin Newsom] and [New York Gov. Kathy Hochul].”
Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Christian conservative advocacy organization Family Research Council and a former Louisiana state legislator, praised Murrill for "defending Louisiana’s right to protect the unborn and their mothers."
"Why is a Republican administration undermining that right?" Perkins asked.
Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney with the progressive advocacy organization American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, also took issue with the DOJ brief.
“Don’t be fooled: the Trump administration isn’t defending medication abortion — it’s just defending its own authority to restrict access to mifepristone if, when, and how it sees fit,” said Kaye in a statement.
“The state politicians attacking mifepristone in court and the Trump administration officials ordering a new FDA review are two sides of the same coin — and both are wrong on the law, the science, and public opinion.”
Last October, Louisiana filed a complaint against the FDA over the federal body allowing abortion pills to be mailed into the state from other places, a policy enacted during the Biden administration. The lawsuit sought to reinstitute an earlier policy that requires abortion drugs to be dispensed in person.
Louisiana passed a law in 2024 that labeled the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol as dangerous controlled substances, effectively banning them from the state.
Earlier this month, Murrill joined pro-life activists and Republican lawmakers at a press conference to urge the Trump administration to crack down on the shipment of abortion drugs across state lines. The press conference came a month after reports emerged that Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary had told agency officials to delay the mifepristone review until after the midterm elections. The White House has shot down claims that the administration is slow-walking the review, insisting that thorough reviews take time.
"[The Biden administration] reduced [FDA] protocols to take away an in-person physician requirement, dispensing requirement, and then they did that specifically with the avowed purpose of facilitating and encouraging people to send those pills by mail, even to states where it is illegal," Murrill said at the press conference.
"And so what they did was violate federal law with the purpose of facilitating people to come out and violate our state laws because they disagree with the political preferences that our state elected to enact through our duly elected representatives and our legislature on the issue of abortion. And I would I would like to emphasize that in Louisiana, this is a bipartisan issue."
