HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is one of 18 state attorneys general in the U.S. demanding that a federal judge removes restrictions imposed on the abortion medicine mifepristone by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA.
The coalition of attorneys general filed a motion late on Thursday urging the judge in Washington, D.C. to strike restrictions they consider unnecessary and severe. The motion asks the court to find the restrictions unlawful and mandate the FDA to create new regulations.
The group says the FDA is knowledgeable of data that proves mifepristone is safe and effective, and that medical experts have long opposed the FDA’s restrictions on the drug.
There are approximately 20,000 FDA-approved drugs, but only 73 have similar restrictions to mifepristone, according to a release from Tong’s office. The attorneys general believe that by keeping the restrictions on mifepristone, the FDA is unnecessarily and unconstitutionally limiting access to a drug they say is safer than Tylenol, Viagra, and Insulin, which don’t have the same restrictions.
“Mifepristone is safer than Tylenol. We have more than 20 years of clear and conclusive scientific evidence proving that,” Tong said. “We’re asking the judge now to cut to the chase – to strike the needless political red tape and order new rules based on science and safety.”
Tong’s office says that mifepristone is safe, and available in Connecticut.
Last year, Tong was among 18 attorneys general who filed a multistate lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. According to Tong’s office, Judge Thomas O. Rice granted the state’s request for a preliminary injunction in April 2023, preventing the FDA from reducing the availability of mifepristone in the 17 states and the District of Columbia.
When granting their request for a preliminary injunction, Rice said that the FDA likely did not follow the requirements in the law when it placed significant restrictions on mifepristone.
Tong’s office says that the preliminary injunction in the case occurred on the same day that a Texas judge stayed the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, but the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned the Texas ruling earlier this year in FDA vs. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. The case continued in federal court in Washington, D.C. while the case in Texas was appealed to the Supreme Court.
Joining Tong on the case are attorneys general for Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Washington, D.C.
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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