Magnolia State News

(Jackson, Mississippi) Attorney General Lynn Fitch, along with 22 otherAttorneys General, On May 12 filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals forthe Fifth Circuit in the case of Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Foodand Drug Administration(FDA).

"Over the past two decades, the FDA has engaged in political calculations, notscientific ones, when it comes to chemical abortion. The Biden Administration'sshameless efforts to skirt federal and state laws with a national mail-orderabortion regime flout the Court's ruling and the rights of the people, and putwomen’s health in jeopardy,”said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “It is ourhope that the Fifth Circuit protects both the health of women and democracyand takes decisive action to uphold the people’s right to regulate abortion.

”In the brief, the Attorneys General argue that the Biden Administration and theFDA's attempt to roll back safety mechanisms for the abortion-inducing drugmifepristone and to make it widely available through the mail violates bothfederal law and state laws. Current federal criminal law plainly prohibits thedistribution of abortion-inducing drugs through the mail. (18 U.S.C. §§ 1461,1462) 

As the Attorneys General write on May 12, “The FDA was not following acongressional mandate or responding to changed circumstances onmifepristone’s safety in promoting a new mail-order abortion regime. Rather,the agency was acting at the behest of the current Administration and its allieswho demanded action after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

”The Attorneys General continue, “The Administration claims that it has thepower to make abortion drugs broadly accessible despite contrarydeterminations by States and despite laws that States have enacted to protectlife, health, and safety in the use of those drugs. That claim is wrong.”

Previously in this case, Justice Samuel Alito noted in his dissent on theApplication for Stay before the Supreme Court of the United States on April 21,2023, “Our granting of a stay of a lower-court decision is an equitableremedy. It should not be given if the moving party has not acted equitably, andthat is the situation here. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasengaged in what has become the practice of ‘leverag[ing]’ district courtinjunctions ‘as a basis’ for implementing a desired policy while evading bothnecessary agency procedures and judicial review.

”Attorneys General from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana,Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio,Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, WestVirginia, and Wyoming joined General Fitch on this brief on the merits beforethe Fifth Circuit.  Read the brief here. 

Original source can be found here