Chemical abortion drug maker's lawsuit fizzles in WV

HUNTINGTON, W.V. – A federal district court Thursday partially dismissed a lawsuit from chemical abortion drug manufacturer GenBioPro that had targeted the state’s pro-life laws. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, assisted by Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, asked the court to uphold the state’s Unborn Child Protection Act and other pro-life legal provisions.

GenBioPro, which manufactures the generic chemical abortion drug mifepristone, asked the court to render the state’s pro-life laws unconstitutional, claiming that Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration the power to mandate nationwide access to dangerous chemical abortions—preempting West Virginia’s duly-enacted pro-life laws that protect the lives of the unborn and mothers. The court rejected most of those arguments, ruling that the state is free to pass and enforce pro-life laws. The only part of the state’s near-total protection for life that the court found could still be challenged is the law ensuring women see a physician in person before receiving chemical abortion drugs. West Virginia had amended its law to prohibit telehealth practitioners from “prescribing or dispensing an abortifacient,” so now the lawsuit will proceed only as it regards that prohibition.

“As I have said all along, the new Unborn Child Protection Act is constitutional; I am pleased the court saw it the way we did,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “While it may not sit well with manufacturers of abortion drugs, the U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that regulating abortion is a state issue, and I will always stand strong for the life of the unborn.”

“West Virginia has a strong and compelling interest in protecting unborn life, maternal health and safety, and the integrity of the medical profession,” said ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley, vice president of the ADF Center for Life and regulatory practice, who argued before the court on behalf of West Virginia. “It’s unacceptable for the manufacturer of a dangerous drug to put profit over the lives of pregnant women and their unborn children. Neither GenBioPro nor the FDA has the authority to set national abortion policy.”

In a brief supporting the motion to dismiss filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, Huntington Division, Attorney General Morrisey and ADF attorneys noted that, contrary to GenBioPro’s arguments, nothing in the text of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act “suggests that Congress authorized FDA to exercise such extraordinary power to displace states in addressing matters of health care practice and prescriptive authority, let alone over the social and political issue that is abortion.”

“Congress has not expressed an intent to occupy the field of drugs subject to a [Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy] in a manner which would preempt West Virginia’s abortion restrictions,” the court wrote in its decision in GenBioPro v. Sorsaia.

Last year, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, West Virginia largely replaced its previous regulation of abortion with the Unborn Child Protection Act, making abortion illegal except in a few rare instances. Further, any licensed medical professional who violates the statute can lose his or her license. West Virginia also amended its criminal law to prohibit any non-licensed medical professional from performing abortions, prohibit telehealth practitioners from “prescribing or dispensing an abortifacient,” and require health care boards to adopt implementing rules for the restriction.

In a separate lawsuit, ADF attorneys representing four medical associations and four doctors have so far prevailed in challenging the FDA’s illegal removal of vital safeguards on chemical abortion drugs that harm women and girls.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

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