Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul joins challenge to abortion pill ruling
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MADISON – Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul is backing a challenge to a federal ruling that suspends the Food and Drug Administration's approval of a common abortion pill that is still being prescribed to some Wisconsin women experiencing miscarriages.
Kaul on Tuesday said he was joining a group of Democratic attorneys general to urge a federal appeals court to stay a decision issued last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that ordered a pause on U.S. approval of the abortion medication mifepristone, putting at risk access to a safe method to treat miscarriages.
Mifepristone was first approved by the FDA in 2000 and is used with another medication called misoprostol to end a pregnancy that is less than 70 days developed. The pills are taken about two days apart.
Lisa Boyce, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said the decision "will create additional hardships to patients seeking abortion outside of Wisconsin and could have catastrophic consequences nationwide for abortion and miscarriage care."
Abortions ceased in Wisconsin in 2022 following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, effectively putting back into place a 19th Century-era law that bans all abortions unless the mother would die without one. Doctors also have reported experiencing uncertainty when faced with situations involving serious pregnancy complications that historically have required abortions to ensure women do not develop serious or fatal health complications.
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Boyce said currently, some women in Wisconsin who are experiencing pregnancy loss where the fetus no longer has a heartbeat may legally be prescribed mifepristone. Generally, however, women who have pregnancy complications that will not result in a viable birth must travel outside of Wisconsin to treat miscarriages with abortions, if the pregnancy does not present an imminent danger to the life of the woman, according to Boyce.
"Miscarriage management or early abortion using mifepristone would no longer be an option for any woman if the Texas ruling stands," she said.
U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, based in Amarillo, Texas, signed an injunction directing the FDA to stay mifepristone’s approval while a lawsuit challenging the safety and approval of the drug continues.
Kaul said the brief the attorneys general filed warns "that revoking federal approval for mifepristone will drastically reduce access to safe abortion care and miscarriage management for millions of people across the country, endangering lives and trampling states’ authority to protect and promote access to abortion."
“The months following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade have made it clearer than ever how vital it is for women to have access to the full array of life-saving reproductive health care services—without interference from politicians,” Kaul said in a statement. “Mifepristone has been used safely for years, and the misguided district court order that would prevent the use of mifepristone must be blocked.”
Gracie Skogman, a spokeswoman for the anti-abortion advocacy group Wisconsin Right to Life, signaled in a statement the group opposed Kaul's effort and supported the ruling to halt the FDA approval while the pill's safety was examined.
"When taken as part of the chemical abortion regimen, mifepristone not only takes the lives of preborn children but has also caused devastating and sometimes life-threatening consequences for women," Skogman said.
When used within the first 10 weeks, mifepristone and misoprostol safely terminated 99.6% of pregnancies with low rates of complications, according to Ana Langer, a reproductive health expert and coordinator of the Women and Health Initiative at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Abortion by pill is used in about 54% of terminated pregnancies in the U.S., according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.
USA Today contributed to this report.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin attorney general joins challenge to abortion pill ruling
