Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that the Michigan Department of Attorney General is joining a coalition of 11 other states in a new federal lawsuit out of Washington where Plaintiffs are motioning for a preliminary injunction to preserve access to the reproductive healthcare medication mifepristone. The coalition requests that the court enjoin the FDA from applying an undue Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) process to patients requiring mifepristone, or from hindering the availability of mifepristone either by removing the drug from the market or by any other cause. The coalition argues that lack of such action will risk uncompensable monetary and labor costs to the states, as well as harming “the health and well-being of state patients and providers by aggravating the ongoing crisis of reduced access to abortion care.”
Given that mifepristone passed through the FDA’s rigorous approval process in 2000 and has exhibited no significant issues with its over 5.6 million users in the 23 intervening years, the coalition argues that the FDA’s imposition of REMS requirements for the drug is “both arbitrary and unconstitutional.” REMS standards have historically been applied to dangerous or addictive substances for which it is “necessary to ensure that the benefits of the?drug?outweigh the risks of the?drug.” 21 U.S.C. § 355-1(a)(1). Mifepristone is considered statistically safer than many common over-the-counter medications, such as Tylenol and aspirin.
The procedural requirements of REMS classification impose a burden on states, providers, pharmacies, and patients which serves no real medical purpose. In addition to the cost of procedural abortion care when compared to the cost of medication, states also stand to suffer from increased administrative fees and the loss of federal funding.
The coalition argues that “reductions in health care access—and the negative patient outcomes that result—are precisely the sorts of irreparable harms that preliminary injunctions are appropriate to prevent.”
“This is just one example of the unprecedented threats to reproductive healthcare being faced by women across our country in the wake of Dobbs,” Nessel said. “Mifepristone has been in use for over two decades without issue, but anti-choice groups have taken this period of uncertainty as an opportunity to obstruct safe and legal medical care – regardless of the risk it poses to residents’ health and wellbeing. Their actions cannot be allowed to stand.”
A hearing has not yet been scheduled on this matter.
Joining Nessel in the lawsuit are the States of Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- Posted February 27, 2023
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Nessel joins coalition seeking a preliminary injunction to preserve access to reproductive healthcare medication
headlines Oakland County
- Annual Dinner & Meeting
- FORCE Team arrests six in prolific auto theft ring
- Michigan allocates $12 million to support community-based organizations in advancing environmental and climate justice
- Oakland County and SMART launch pilot program providing free transit for veterans and dependents
- Supreme Court sides with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
headlines National
- More lawyers—and clients—want to learn about sustainable development practices
- Top artificial intelligence insurance tips for lawyers
- Lawyer charged with illegally transmitting Michigan data after 2020 election
- Viral video shows former Rikers Island inmate as she learns she passed bar exam on first try
- How Sullivan & Cromwell is scrutinizing potential new hires after campus protests
- No separate hearing required when police seize cars loaned to drivers accused of drug crimes, SCOTUS rules