Wisconsin Attorney General takes action to protect medication abortion access

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Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul Friday joined a multistate coalition of 24 attorneys general to protect access to medication abortion nationwide.

The coalition filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) and Danco Laboratories LLC’s efforts to reverse a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that reinstated certain restrictions on the medication known as mifepristone after the FDA had determined those restrictions were medically unnecessary.

Because mifepristone, when used in combination with misoprostol, is the only medication approved by the FDA for abortion care, Kaul and the coalition argue that the Fifth Circuit’s ruling would, if allowed to take effect, reinstate medically unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone. This would have dangerous consequences for reproductive health care outcomes, particularly for low-income and underserved communities.

“This case asks the Supreme Court to ignore science and the law in order to further reduce reproductive freedom,” said Kaul. “The Court should reject this attack on access to medication abortion,” Kaul added.

Kaul and the coalition of attorneys general are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Fifth Circuit’s decision to restrict how mifepristone can be prescribed and dispensed. The amicus brief highlights decades of high-quality evidence and clinical research that shows mifepristone is safe and effective. The coalition also pointed out that the FDA’s decisions in 2016 to approve a modified label and reform the conditions for prescribing mifepristone were supported by robust safety data and decades of clinical experience.

The coalition notes that if the Fifth Circuit’s decision is permitted to take effect, it could disrupt access to the most common method of abortion, harming countless Americans in need of medical care or pregnancy loss management, with widespread consequences for the health care system. Among other things, the lower court decision could lead many individuals to instead undergo procedural abortion, drive up risks, costs and delays, and deprive many Americans of access to reproductive health care altogether. The coalition further argues that the ruling would create widespread confusion among providers, distributors and pharmacies, and radically destabilize the regulatory process for drug approvals, stifling scientific innovation and imperiling the development and availability of thousands of drugs nationwide.

Joining Kaul in submitting today’s amicus brief are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.