By KATE PAYNE
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s legal professional common has filed a lawsuit in opposition to Deliberate Parenthood, claiming the group is “misrepresenting the security” of abortion drugs.
It’s the newest authorized problem geared toward abortion drugs, that are the commonest strategy to finish a being pregnant within the U.S., and which is more and more a goal for opponents of the process within the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s 2022 choice overturning Roe v. Wade.
In a criticism filed in a state court docket in Santa Rosa County on Thursday, Florida Lawyer Basic James Uthmeier claimed the community of clinics is “making false claims concerning the security of abortion medicine,” highlighting Deliberate Parenthood’s statements the drugs are “safer than Tylenol.”
Right here’s what to know.
Florida’s lawsuit targets ‘false claims’ about abortion drug security
Florida’s lawsuit claims Deliberate Parenthood is violating a Florida regulation in opposition to misleading and unfair commerce practices and its actions represent “racketeering,” a cost that was initially used to battle organized crime.
“Deliberate Parenthood and its Florida operations mislead girls concerning the crucial and plain dangers of a chemical abortion by deceptively claiming these highly effective medicine are much less dangerous than on a regular basis ache remedy,” the criticism reads.
The lawsuit seeks estimated damages of $350 million and asks the court docket to think about implementing a set of sanctions in opposition to Deliberate Parenthood, together with requiring the group to unload actual property, bar it from offering abortions, or order that the group be dissolved.
In a press release, Deliberate Parenthood officers described the lawsuit as a “politically motivated assault” geared toward additional eroding entry to abortion in Florida, which bans most abortions after six weeks of being pregnant, earlier than many ladies even know they’re pregnant.
“Anti-abortion lawmakers and officers are relentless of their effort to finish entry to all abortion care, and to cease sufferers from getting correct medical info. We are going to proceed to be simply as relentless in our effort to defend entry to this protected, efficient care,” Susan Baker Manning, common counsel for the Deliberate Parenthood Federation of America mentioned in a press release, including: “See you in court docket.”
The legal professional common of Missouri filed the same lawsuit in opposition to Deliberate Parenthood in July. The subsequent listening to in that case is ready for February.
Caroline Mala Corbin, a professor who teaches constitutional regulation on the College of Miami Faculty of Regulation, mentioned it isn’t shocking Florida is on the lookout for new methods to limit entry to what has turn into the popular strategy to finish a being pregnant within the U.S.
“If this one succeeds, it could turn into a mannequin for different states. And if it fails, little doubt they’ll give you one thing else,” Corbin mentioned.
Abortion opponents check new authorized methods to limit entry
Opponents of abortion are more and more specializing in limiting entry to drugs, which by the point the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe accounted for over half of all abortions, usually utilizing a mixture of the medicine mifepristone and misoprostol.
The drugs at the moment are utilized in practically two-thirds of the abortions supplied throughout the nation and are prescribed through telehealth to sufferers in states with bans by docs in states with legal guidelines that search to guard them from authorized scrutiny for offering such interstate care.
The Supreme Court docket choice opened the door for states to ban abortion, with Republican-controlled states working to limit entry and punish folks who assist abortions, whereas Democrat-controlled states handed defend legal guidelines to guard medical suppliers.
Now, with Texas and 11 different states imposing bans on abortion in any respect levels of being pregnant, and 4 extra that bar most of them after the primary six weeks or so of gestation, the drugs have turn into an much more important means abortion is supplied within the U.S. — even in states that ban the process.
Final 12 months, the Supreme Court docket unanimously preserved entry to a mifepristone, ruling that abortion opponents lacked the authorized proper to sue over the federal Meals and Drug Administration’s approval of the remedy.
Republican attorneys common are renewing the authorized push, after the excessive court docket despatched the case again right down to a decrease court docket in Texas. The attorneys common are contending that mifepristone is simply too dangerous to be prescribed through telehealth and that the FDA ought to roll again approvals and tighten entry.
Researchers discover abortion medicine are typically protected
Research have discovered mifepristone and misoprostol are typically protected and lead to accomplished abortions greater than 97% of the time.
Medical organizations supporting mifepristone’s availability say the drug’s security compares to “ibuprofen, which greater than 30 million Individuals soak up any given day.”
Since 2000, roughly 6 million sufferers have taken mifepristone, in accordance with the FDA. A 2021 assessment of company information on the lookout for deaths that have been possible associated to the drug recognized 13, or .00027% of sufferers.
In an informational web page on Deliberate Parenthood’s web site, the group compares abortion medicine to different widespread medicines.
“Medicine abortion may be very protected. The truth is, it’s safer than many different medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra. Critical issues are uncommon, however like all medicines, there could be dangers,” the assertion reads.
Kate Payne is a corps member for The Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.
