FDA sued by abortion activist Rebecca Gomperts for cracking down on ‘abortion pill by mail’ access
An abortion activist in Europe, Rebecca Gomperts, federal lawsuit against the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for blocking “Aid Access,” an Internet consultation and mail order abortion pill industry.
Forsaken: Women from Tauton Talk about Abortion Photo/Amazon
The FDA opened an investigation into Aid Access last October, and in March warned the organization that it was “facilitating the sale of…unapproved and misbranded” products, and to “promptly cease” doing so or face regulatory action potentially “including seizure or injunction, without further notice.”
The two abortion inducing drugs called mifepristone and misoprostol were being sent to patients after a brief online consultation with a medical professional, sometimes not a doctor.
On Friday, Gomperts filed a suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho against the FDA and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar for seizing up to ten doses of abortion drugs Aid Access had “prescribed” since that letter, NPR reports, as well as allegedly blocking some payments to the group.
The suit seeks to stop what Gomperts calls “bullying” and “intimidation” by the FDA.
Gomperts’ attorney Richard Hearn claims that Aid Access merely helps women carry out the so-called “right” to abortion.
“Some women in the United States can exercise that right just by going down the street if those women happen to live in New York or San Francisco or other major metropolitan areas on either one of the coasts,” he told NPR. “But women in Idaho and other rural states, especially conservative states…cannot exercise that right.”
“FDA remains very concerned about the sale of unapproved mifepristone for medical termination of early pregnancy on the Internet or via other channels for illegal importation, because this bypasses important safeguards designed to protect women’s health,” the agency responded in a statement to NPR. It didn’t comment on potential future actions against Aid Access, but said it “generally does not take enforcement action against individuals” who receive such unapproved drugs.
Pro-lifers also warn that even when “properly” taken, abortion pills are not only lethal to pre-born children but more dangerous to women than advertised.
“As of December 31, 2018, there were reports of 24 deaths of women associated with Mifeprex since the product was approved in September 2000, including two cases of ectopic pregnancy resulting in death; and several cases of severe systemic infection (also called sepsis), including some that were fatal,” the FDA warns, on top of 2,740 cases of severe complications from 2000 to 2012.
“Protecting women from the known dangers of abortion-inducing drugs is good and safe policy,” Students for Life of America spokesperson Kristi Hamrick said in a statement about the lawsuit. “Risking women’s lives so that an international sales team for abortion pills can more easily operate is not in the interests of American women. It’s easy to understand why a profit driven industry for chemical abortion pills wants fewer health and safety standards but protecting women from the known dangers of the pills is the right public policy.”
