Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes joins lawsuit over restrictions on abortion drug

Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has signed onto a multistate lawsuit that's part of an intensifying national fight over access to one of the drugs used in medication abortions.

The federal lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeks to end restrictions on mifepristone.

It accuses the FDA of ignoring science that shows mifepristone is safe, a news release from Mayes' office says. The legal action alleges the FDA has singled out mifepristone for "excessively burdensome regulation, despite ample evidence that the drug is safer than Tylenol," according to the news release.

The Democratic attorneys general who filed the legal action are asking the court to halt the enforcement of the FDA’s restrictions on mifepristone while the case continues, according to Mayes' office.

The two drugs used in a medication abortion, often referred to as abortion with pills, are mifepristone and misoprostol.

More than half of abortions in the U.S. are medication abortions, a two-drug combination recommended for use up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, though many clinics prescribe it at up to 11 weeks of pregnancy, and the World Health Organization has authorized its use up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum are leading the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, Mayes office said. Other states that have joined are Nevada, Delaware, Illinois, Connecticut, Colorado, Vermont, New Mexico, Michigan and Rhode Island.

Lawsuit is part of a growing battle over access to abortion pills

The lawsuit from the attorneys general comes at a time when anti-abortion groups are seeking to stop sales of mifepristone. A coalition led by the conservative legal advocacy organization Alliance Defending Freedom filed the lawsuit Nov. 18 in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, arguing the drug comes with medical risks and should be pulled from the market, USA TODAY reported.

Anti-abortion advocates have argued that abortion pills leave women to face the physical and emotional risks of a medication abortion alone.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says medication abortions are a "safe and effective method" of providing an abortion.

“Mifepristone is safe and effective and has been used for over two decades by millions of people," Mayes said in a written statement. "Access to this drug allows patients to make their own private medical decisions without interference by the government or anti-abortion politicians. The bottom line is that individuals should be able to make decisions about their reproductive lives without unnecessary restrictions like these."

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on June 24, it meant that states could set their own laws without any federal standard protecting abortion access, which has "created a new focus on medication abortion as an option for expanding access to people facing barriers to abortion care," the Kaiser Family Foundation wrote in a Feb. 24 health policy brief.

The lawsuit Mayes joined says the restrictions on prescribing and dispensing mifepristone, which includes mandatory certification from the manufacturer for anyone who prescribes and dispenses the drug, are "unduly burdensome, harmful and unnecessary and expose providers and patients to unnecessary privacy and safety risks."

Administrative burdens deter health providers from dispensing mifepristone, Mayes says

While the FDA in December removed an in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone and expanded the distribution to include certified pharmacies in addition to certified clinicians, prescribers are still required to be certified by the manufacturers.

The administrative burdens associated with becoming certified "deter health care providers and pharmacists from signing up to prescribe and dispense mifepristone in the first place," according to Mayes' office.

"Disclosure of a provider’s or pharmacy’s certification to prescribe mifepristone, or a patient’s agreement to receive it, all required by the FDA, could expose them to violence, harassment or abuse," the statement from Mayes' office says. "This documentation may also be used to threaten providers or patients with legal liability in states with extreme anti-abortion laws."

While some retail pharmacies have said they are going through an application process to dispense mifepristone in brick-and-mortar facilities, that won't be able to happen in Arizona because of the restrictive abortion access laws here.

Abortion pills in Arizona are only available via an in-person visit to a clinic that offers abortion. That's because Arizona requires mandatory in-person counseling, followed by a 24-hour waiting period and then another office visit to obtain either a surgical or a medication abortion, providers here say. Arizona also prohibits the use of telemedicine for medication abortions.

Mayes on Feb. 16 added her name to a letter with 22 other Democratic attorneys general urging Walgreens and CVS to ship the medication to anti-abortion states.

"I'm obviously supportive of a woman's ability to access medication abortions," Mayes told The Arizona Republic at the time. But the issue is "complicated because of these barriers that the Legislature has thrown up," she said.

Providers from outside the U.S. will ship abortion pills to U.S. residents. Those include Aid Access, operated by a Dutch physician, and Women on Web, which is based in the U.K.

Arizona has a law that says a "manufacturer, supplier or physician or any other person is prohibited from providing an abortion-inducing drug via courier, delivery or mail service," but the law doesn't say anything about whether it is legal for a person to receive the drugs in the mail.

Reach health care reporter Stephanie Innes at Stephanie.Innes@gannett.com or at 602-444-8369. Follow her on Twitter @stephanieinnes.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona AG Kris Mayes joins lawsuit over restrictions on abortion drug