Attorney General William Tong on Friday announced Connecticut has joined a coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia opposing needless barriers to mifepristone access in North Carolina.
The coalition filed an amicus brief in Bryant v. Stein, asking the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to uphold the District Court’s determination that North Carolina cannot impose restrictions on mifepristone access that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has explicitly determined are unnecessary to ensure patient safety.
According to a release from AG Tong, “Mifepristone is safe and effective and regulated by the FDA. In revising its own laws on pregnancy termination, North Carolina in 2023 imposed numerous needless restrictions around the use and distribution of mifepristone. These restrictions went above and beyond FDA’s already overly burdensome restrictions, including provisions that FDA had removed as unnecessary for patient safety. These restrictions included physician-only prescribing; in-person prescribing, dispensing, and administering; the scheduling of in-person follow-up appointments; and non-fatal adverse event reporting to the FDA.”
A North Caroline OB-GYN challenged the unnecessary rules, and a federal district court judge ruled earlier this year that the state could not override the FDA’s determination to remove those specific restrictions on mifepristone.
The coalition’s amicus brief defends the District Court’s decision as striking the proper balance between state authority and FDA regulation.
Attorney General Tong has taken numerous actions in courts across the country to preserve access to medication abortion, including joining 17 attorneys general in Washington federal court challenging other unnecessary and severe restrictions still imposed by the FDA. Mifepristone is safe and accessible in Connecticut.
Mr. Tong has issued Formal Opinion 2023-03 clarifying the status of the abortion drug mifepristone, in light of various federal court rulings.
“Mifepristone is safe and effective with years and years of clear and conclusive evidence to prove that. These onerous restrictions—both by states like North Carolina and the FDA—have nothing to do with patient safety. I’m going to keep fighting in courts across the country to protect access to reproductive care free from needless political interference,” Tong said.
Joining Attorney General Tong in signing the brief, led by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and the District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb, were the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.