Louisiana pushes back as Trump admin tries to pause abortion pill lawsuit

The Trump administration asked a federal court to pause a lawsuit from Louisiana that challenges a Biden-era policy allowing abortion drugs to be shipped across state lines – sparking fierce criticism from the pro-life movement.

Chemical abortions, typically using a two-drug combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, account for more than 60% of all abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The Food and Drug Administration, under former President Joe Biden, removed the requirement for the drugs to be dispensed in person, allowing them to be sent in the mail, even to pro-life states.

Louisiana, along with Alliance Defending Freedom, recently sued the FDA over the policy, arguing it effectively nullifies the state’s pro-life protections and puts women in harm’s way. A Louisiana resident, Rosalie Markezich, also joined the lawsuit, alleging her boyfriend put her “under immense pressure” and ultimately coerced her into taking abortion drugs that he obtained from an out-of-state doctor. 

Yet the FDA, in a court filing this week, asked a federal court to halt the lawsuit as it continues a review of mifepristone safety and regulations. 

“We are disappointed that the Trump administration is asking the court to pause our case and deny our clients immediate relief while the FDA takes years to study the known harms of abortion drugs and restore commonsense safeguards,” ADF senior counsel Erik Baptist said in a statement to The Lion, noting that under the current policy, men can order the drugs and “coerce or trick” women into taking them.  

“There is no reason to leave in place the concededly unlawful, dangerous removal of a vital protection for women while the FDA takes another year or more to conduct a study confirming what the FDA already knows – that these are high-risk drugs and that mail-order abortions increase the risks to women,” he said. “In this case, justice delayed truly is justice denied.” 

Louisiana’s lawsuit is an attempt to “end the illegal flow of abortion drugs” across its borders, ADF President Kristen Waggoner said in a statement. “The admin should stand with Louisiana – not with abortion extremists like Gavin Newsom and Letitia James,” she said.  

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill also criticized the administration in a statement on X, noting that the FDA’s policy allows some “1,000 dangerous abortions a month in Louisiana.” 

“That is an affront to our sovereignty and the dignity of women and the unborn,” she said, adding that the FDA should “stand with us for life,” and not with Democrats like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. 

The FDA referred The Lion to the Justice Department for comment. 

“This Department of Justice remains committed to advancing President Trump’s pro-life agenda, including through dismissing criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits against peaceful pro-life advocates targeted by the previous administration, and using the FACE Act to protect pro-life pregnancy centers,” a Justice Department spokesperson told The Lion, noting that the administration is simply requesting additional time for the FDA to complete its review. “As the Supreme Court recognized in a unanimous ruling less than two years ago, it is the role of the FDA – not the federal courts – to evaluate drug safety data and impose appropriate precautions.” 

In its court filing, the Trump administration acknowledges “widespread debate” over the safety of abortion drugs and asks the court to halt the pending litigation pending the FDA’s own review of mifepristone. Louisiana’s lawsuit threatens to “short circuit the agency’s orderly review and study of the safety risks of mifepristone,” the filing notes, and the “requested relief may prove as unnecessary as it is disruptive, if FDA ultimately decides that the in-person dispensing requirement must be restored.” 

Other pro-life voices are expressing outrage over the court filing, calling it “unacceptable,” in growing pushback against the Trump administration for what they see as slow rolling pro-life reforms. Women are suffering harm as “the Trump-Vance administration refuses to reimplement basic guardrails on deadly mail-order abortion drugs,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement, noting that abortion drugs by mail are “killing more Americans than fentanyl, cocaine or heroin combined.” 

“Women and children are dying and do not have ‘a year or more’ to wait on the FDA,” she said. “They deserve safeguards NOW.” 

Dannenfelser argued the Trump administration should be standing with pro-life states like Louisiana rather than “holding onto Joe Biden’s disastrous Covid-era policies.” 

Ahead of the midterms, Dannenfelser noted, pro-lifers will be watching. “Ignoring the pro-life base is a tremendous miscalculation,” she said. “Seven in 10 voters overall, including 57% of liberal voters, agree Biden’s Covid mail-order abortion drug rule must go.”