Abortion pill challenged in new lawsuit against FDA
We can't go back. Amarillo, Texas, now at the center of America's abortion debate. I believe that we will win. Here, a group of anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations are suing the FDA, challenging the approval of mithiprex, generically known as mithipristone, part of a two-drug regimen commonly used for abortions that's been approved by the FDA since 2000. Alliance Defending Freedom arguing the FDA didn't adequately evaluate the drug's safety. We're asking the court to do what is right and ask the FDA to follow the law by taking these dangerous drugs off the marketplace. Presiding over the case, a conservative judge appointed by former President Trump an injunction would cut off access to mithiprestone nationwide.
If the plaintiffs win this lawsuit, what will be the effect? It will be devastating. Even in places where they've worked very hard to secure access to abortion, states like California, New York, here in D.C. Abortion providers like Dr. Serena Floyd say the lawsuit is based on misinformation. How dangerous is this medication? It's not dangerous at all. The evidence is solid.
The science is solid. The complication rate is less than 1%. The FDA told NBC News it does not comment on ongoing litigation. But in a court filing, said the claims in the lawsuit are, quote, unsupported by any evidence. Since 2000, more than five million women have taken mithiprestone, with 28 deaths associated with the drug reported. Millions of women have taken these drugs safely. Doesn't that paint a contrary picture to your complaint? I'm seeing these women in my own practice.
My emergency room physicians, they're telling me how frequently they're seeing these complications. The women come in with retained tissue, with heavy bleeding, with serious life-threatening infections. In a court brief, the country's leading group of OBGYNs say mithiprestone is, quote, exceedingly safe and effective, calling the lawsuit, quote, ideological, not scientific. The result, if you win, is that abortion access will be significantly limited. Is that the goal of this lawsuit? No, the goal of this lawsuit is to protect American women and girls from dangerous chemical abortion drugs. There is another drug, mesoprostol, that can be used for medication abortions. But doctors say it can be less effective on its own.
Back in Amarillo, Amanda Barnes traveled from Atlanta to protest this case. It's ridiculous that just because, you know, we were born with a uterus in certain body parts, that we should have to be subjected to this treatment.
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