N.C. Governor and State Attorney General ask high court to protect abortion pill | Eastern NC Now

By Peyton Majors
Christian Action League
March 1, 2024

The governor and attorney general of North Carolina are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the federal government to loosen the restrictions on the abortion pill in a major case that would have a nationwide impact on the drug’s availability.

In recent weeks, Gov. Roy Cooper and N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein, both Democrats, signed onto separate friend-of-the-court briefs asking the high court to reverse an August decision by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In that ruling, a three-judge panel struck down 2016 FDA rules that made it easier to access the abortion pill, which is a two-drug regimen that is sometimes called a “chemical abortion.”

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case but has not set a date for oral arguments.

“No woman should ever have to worry about whether she can get the medication she needs,” Stein said. “I will continue to do everything in my power to stand up for women’s reproductive freedoms.”

Stein joined a multistate coalition of 24 attorneys general. Cooper signed a brief by the Reproductive Freedom Alliance.

“More than five million people have used this safe, effective medication since the FDA approved it and this case is an extremist, political attempt to take away women’s freedom to make their own private medical decisions,” Cooper said. “I urge the Supreme Court to protect women’s health and overturn the Fifth Circuit’s terrible decision.”

Pro-life groups, though, say the FDA’s rules are endangering not only the lives of unborn children but also of women.

The Human Coalition, a pro-life group, filed a brief with the Supreme Court last year asserting that the FDA rules: 1) “eliminated the in-person examination following the medication abortion,” 2) “increased the maximum gestational age from seven to ten weeks,” 3) “removed the in-person dispensing requirement for misoprostol,” and, 4) “eliminated the reporting requirement for non-fatal adverse events.”

Those safeguards had been put in place in 2000 when the abortion drug was approved for the market.

“Beginning in 2016, the FDA removed several necessary safeguards designed to protect women from dangerous complications associated with mifepristone,” the Human Coalition brief says, referencing one of the two drugs. The other is misoprostol.

Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, causing the lining of the uterus to break down in order to kill the unborn baby. Misoprostol sparks contractions and a delivery of a dead fetus. The two drugs can be taken only early in the pregnancy.

“I strongly disagree with Governor Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein’s decision to support the loosening of restrictions on the abortion pill. By advocating for policies that make it easier to access the abortion pill, they are the ones prioritizing political ideology over the protection of both unborn children and women’s health, said Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League. “It is essential to uphold standards that prioritize the sanctity of life and the health of all individuals involved. I urge Governor Cooper and Attorney General Stein to reconsider their stance and prioritize the protection of both unborn children and women’s health in their policymaking decisions.”