Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Planned Parenthood, accusing it of misleading women about the dangers of medicated abortions to cut costs and increase revenue at the risk of women’s health and safety.
The Food and Drug Administration noted in 2016 that in preclinical studies, between 2.9% and 4.6% of women who took mifepristone and misoprostol, the two-drug cocktail used for medicated abortions, needed treatment in emergency rooms. About 85% of patients reported at least one adverse reaction after taking the drug, “and many can be expected to report more than one such reaction,” the FDA said.
“The national Planned Parenthood organization is actively endangering the lives of women and girls across the country by spreading lies and disinformation about the powerful chemical abortion drug,” Bailey said in a news release.
Planned Parenthood on its website stated “medication abortion is very safe. In fact, it’s safer than many other medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra. Serious problems are rare, but like all medicines, there can be risks.”
“The facts are clear: More than 4.5% of women who take this dangerous drug end up in the emergency room, yet Planned Parenthood compares it to Tylenol,” Bailey said. “This is a blatant violation of Missouri law, and I will not allow a death factory to lie to Missouri women in pursuit of its radical agenda.”
The lawsuit contended that Planned Parenthood violated the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, a consumer protection law that prohibits deceptive and unfair business practices.
The lawsuit cited a study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an anti-abortion advocacy group, published May 24 by the peer-reviewed journal BioTech that stated, “comparing the labeled use of one drug with the misuse of another in a safety claim is disingenuous.”
“There has never been a single study appropriately comparing the safety of mifepristone and acetaminophen [Tylenol] or any of the common drugs presented in these claims, let alone a 20-year history of ‘clear and conclusive scientific evidence’ to this end,” the study stated. “Indeed, given that such a study would require similar indications for use, it is not possible for one to be undertaken. This alone is sufficient reason to qualify such comparisons as false and/or misleading and to contest their use to influence public and individual decision-making.”
The lawsuit alleged that after the Biden administration removed some safety precautions for mifepristone, “a dataset of more than 850,000 mifepristone abortions identified serious adverse events in more than 10% of women who took just one dose of the abortion pill.”
Medicated abortions have been available in the U.S. since 2000, when the FDA approved the use of mifepristone with misoprostol, and in 2023, they accounted for 63% of all abortions, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. Mifepristone was first approved for use through seven weeks of pregnancy and is currently approved through 10 weeks.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary vowed last month in a letter to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to conduct a full review of mifepristone’s safety. Hawley also urged Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a letter Tuesday to reinstate safety regulations on mifepristone and reverse actions taken by Joe Biden and other Democrat presidents to reduce safety guardrails.
The lawsuit is the latest setback against Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, who are no longer eligible for Medicaid reimbursements following the One Big Beautiful Bill Act becoming law. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, a Barack Obama appointee, last week partially granted Planned Parenthood’s request for a preliminary injunction while its lawsuit against the administration plays out.
Newsmax reached out to Planned Parenthood for comment.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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