{"id":285572,"date":"2023-02-20T14:38:27","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T20:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=285572"},"modified":"2023-02-20T11:58:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T17:58:30","slug":"alaska-fda-lawsuit-abortion-pill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/alaska-fda-lawsuit-abortion-pill\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska joins lawsuit to revoke FDA approval of abortion pill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On February 10, Alaska joined 22 other states and a pro-life group in a federal lawsuit aiming to revoke the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s approval of the abortion pill regimen. If successful, the first of the two drugs used in the abortion pill regimen<\/a>, mifepristone, could be removed from the market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The lawsuit was originally filed in November 2022 by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys\u00a0on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Pediatricians, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, and doctors Shaun Jester, Regina Frost-Clark, Tyler Johnson, and George Delgado. The goal is to have the abortion pill<\/span>\u00a0regimen taken off the market nationwide due to safety concerns.\u00a0<\/span>According to <\/span>Alaska Public Media<\/span><\/a>, the abortion pill<\/span>\u00a0is used f<\/span>or about\u00a0<\/span>one-third<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of abortions in the state and about\u00a0<\/span>a third\u00a0<\/span><\/a>of Alaskan women live in a borough without an abortion facility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor, along with pro-life attorneys general from across the nation, filed\u00a0<\/span>a brief<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>concerning the FDA\u2019s approval of the abortion pill in 2000. The brief refers to the FDA\u2019s process of approval as \u201cdeeply flawed.\u201d\u00a0 It also argued that the use of mifepristone without physician supervision has increased risks for women.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Walgreens<\/a><\/p>\n

ADF explained<\/a>, “The FDA also removed the few safeguards that were in place. In 2016, for example, the FDA extended the permissible gestational age of the baby for which a girl or woman may take chemical abortion drugs\u2014from seven weeks\u2019 gestation to 10 weeks\u2019 gestation\u2014increasing the mother\u2019s risk of adverse complications. The FDA also changed the dosage and route of administration for the drugs, reduced the number of required in-person doctor visits from three to one, expanded who could prescribe and administer chemical abortion drugs beyond medical doctors, and eliminated the requirement for abortionists to report non-fatal complications from chemical abortion drugs.”<\/p>\n

While the FDA <\/span>claims<\/span><\/a>\u00a0the abortion pill is safe and effective for women up to 10 weeks gestation, one study actually found the abortion pill to be four times more dangerous for women<\/a> than a first-trimester surgical abortion.<\/span>\u00a0The abortion pill also has a significant <\/span>emotional impact<\/span><\/a> on many women.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n