NBC Boston | Federal abortion pill lawsuit targets states like Massachusetts

By Mary Markos | Originally Published on NBC Boston

Three midwestern states are trying to restrict access to the abortion drug mifepristone across the United States in a recently filed amended lawsuit targeting so-called shield states like Massachusetts.

The complaint challenges the ability of telehealth providers to dispense the drug through the mail to patients and makes it illegal for minors. Local reproductive health experts told NBC10 Boston Monday that the lawsuit could have major implications because, while Massachusetts state law offers some protections, providers in the state ship thousands of mifepristone pills every month.

"The goal — the end game for anti-abortion activists — is to ban abortion in all 50 states," Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart-Holder said. "So one of the ways that you do that is to ban a type of abortion."

Attorneys general in Missouri, Kansas and Idaho filed an amended lawsuit against the FDA asking a Texas judge appointed by then-President Donald Trump to reduce access to the medication. Gov. Maura Healey stockpiled mifepristone after the same judge paused the drug's FDA approval over a year ago. She also passed a law to protect patients and providers from out-of-state prosecution.

"I'm proud that Massachusetts acted quickly," Healey said Monday. "Supreme courts already decided this. I'm going to strongly defend and protect women's access to mifepristone here and around the country."

NBC10 Boston political commentator Sue O'Connell discusses why states are suing each other over access to abortion pills, as well as the growing movement on college campuses to remain uncommitted in the presidential election and an early voting turnout record in North Carolina.

It was after Healey's law passed that Dr. Angel Foster co-founded Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, an asynchronous telemedicine practice that provides affordable abortion care to patients across the U.S. The practice ships thousands of mifepristone pills every month.

About a third of patients are from Texas, according to Foster, and 95% live in banned, restricted or tele-medicine banned states.

"Restricting access to mifepristone is disheartening," Foster said. "It's anti-science, it's anti-health and it's anti-human rights and social justice of making sure access to abortion is as affordable as possible."

There are now 22 states across the country with abortion bans or severe restrictions. Medication abortions accounted for well over 50% of abortions in Massachusetts and approximately 63% across the country last year, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

"We have over 20 years' worth of data about the safety of mifepristone because it is one of the most studied drugs regulated by the FDA," Hart-Holder said.

This is not the first time pro-life advocates have gone after the drug. The Supreme Court threw out a similar lawsuit four months ago due to a lack of standing.

"What the lawsuit does is try to revoke an 1873 zombie federal law called the Comstock Act," Hart-Holder said. "We have over 20 years' worth of data about the safety of mifepristone because it is one of the most studied drugs regulated by the FDA."