WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Idaho, Missouri and Kansas Republican Attorneys General are pledging to revive a lawsuit to ban abortion pill, mifepristone, nationwide.
Last week the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the lawsuit. The justices ruled pro-life doctors did not have legal grounds to sue the FDA.
Following the decision, Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Erin Hawley, who represented the three doctors before the Supreme Court, said the ruling was based on a technicality not the merits.
Hawley remains “encouraged” the states will be able to hold to the FDA accountable.
ADF, Missouri, Kansas and Idaho accuse the FDA of illegally bringing the drug to market.
In a statement issued minutes after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey called the drug “dangerous” and “untested,” adding it “would cost the lives of both women and their unborn children.”
The Biden administration is promising to protect access to mifepristone. In a statement the White House says the drug has been proven “safe and effective for more than 20 years.”
The state attorneys generals effort would effectively ban access to mifepristone in all states.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), husband of Erin Hawley, argues the suit is necessary to keep the abortion pill out of the more than a dozen states with abortion bans.
“I don’t want the federal government coming on top of our voters and saying never mind what you want we’re going to mail in chemical abortion drugs,” said Hawley. “That’s just wrong.”
The legal effort in Kansas is more complicated. In 2022 voters there rejected efforts to restrict abortion access following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“Kansas has been so clear where we stand,” says Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.).
Davids represents Kansas’ lone Democratic district. She calls Kansas Attorney General Kobach’s efforts to ban mifepristone “extreme.”
“They’re attacking something that’s been safely used for so long,” says Davids.
