WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Pro-life leaders have raised their voices to call on the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate protections for women as the Court weighs a major chemical abortion drug case after hearing oral arguments this week.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine on Tuesday, March 26. Plaintiffs have been joined by 25 states, 145 members of Congress, women harmed by chemical abortion, and a broad coalition of doctors and advocacy groups who filed friend-of-the-court briefs.
READ: Pro-lifers may face uphill battle as Supreme Court hears arguments on FDA abortion pill case
In the summary of the case, Alliance Defending Freedom, which made the pro-life arguments in court, highlighted the fact that, in addition to killing the baby in the womb, the abortion drug poses “severe, even life-threatening, harm” to women.
Ingrid Skop, M.D., FACOG, a board-certified OB-GYN who serves as vice president and director of medical affairs at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, who provided a declaration to the Court that was referenced many times during oral arguments, said in a statement on the case, “The FDA’s decision to weaken commonsense safeguards, removing doctors from the process, shows they prioritize ending unborn life over the health and safety of women.”
“As a practicing OB-GYN with over 30 years of experience, I have seen how abortion drugs have harmed my patients, both mothers and their unborn children,” she continued. “I have cared for many of these women in the ER, even though abortion advocates pretend they don’t exist. Their stories must be heard, but abortion advocates, working with corporate media, have gaslighted them into silence. I hope the Supreme Court holds the FDA accountable for their reckless actions.”
READ: EXCLUSIVE: Attorney describes what’s at stake when Supreme Court hears abortion drug case
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser also raised her voice in defense of women harmed by the drug, saying, “Today I was proud to stand with women harmed by abortion drugs courageously sharing their stories, and with the doctors caring for them, in contrast to the abortion industry that leaves women to suffer alone. They all know the true cost of the FDA’s recklessness first-hand.”
“Together we are standing up to say #WomensHealthMatters and the FDA must do its job. We urge the Supreme Court to uphold safeguards for women and girls.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s State Policy Director and attorney Katie Daniel said,
This case is about the harm inflicted on countless women and girls by dangerous mail-order abortion drugs. It is the story of how the FDA, the very agency tasked with ensuring Americans have safe medicines, put politics and industry profits before health and safety. The abortion lobby and their political allies pretend that women like Elizabeth, Leslie and Kelly, who have suffered lasting trauma from taking abortion drugs, don’t exist. They will try to distract from the reality that, under Biden’s FDA, abortion drugs can be sent through the mail to children. These high-risk drugs are being mailed without verifying that the buyer isn’t an abuser or trafficker, and without so much as a follow-up visit to a doctor to check for life-threatening complications – even to states where life is protected by law.
“Holding the FDA accountable is not the end of health innovation in America – far from it. It is the beginning of restoring public trust, lost over decades due to their reckless flouting of the law and their own rules,” Daniel added.
READ: Congressmen urge Supreme Court to protect women and children from dangers of abortion pill
March for Life President Jeanne Mancini wrote in an article published by Fox News:
The FDA’s removal of nearly all safeguards around the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone has needlessly put women and girls at risk for suffering severe — even life-threatening — complications without the ongoing care of a medical provider. Despite the FDA’s own label showing that roughly 1 in 25 women end up in the emergency room after ingesting these pills, the agency does not require prescribers to report resultant medical emergencies like severe bleeding and sepsis. We hope the FDA will be held accountable for failing to meet its own standards when it comes to abortion drugs. Such reckless disregard for women’s health and safety is unacceptable from an agency tasked with protecting it.
Senior fellow with the Catholic Association Grazie Pozo Christie, M.D., a radiologist specializing in maternal/fetal ultrasound who filed an amicus brief in the case, issued the following statment:
It is alarming that the Food and Drug Administration has placed politics above the health and safety of women and girls in the case of abortion drugs. The FDA, which is tasked with ‘ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security’ of drugs has ignored science and common sense by removing every meaningful safeguard around mifepristone, including critical in-person medical oversight. Regardless of whether one is pro-choice or pro-life, we should all want to maximize the safety of pregnant women. And the FDA has a legal obligation to do so.
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Texas Alliance for Life Director of Communications Amy O’Donnell stated,
We strongly believe the Supreme Court should prioritize the health and safety of women and girls in our country by returning protections to prevent the unsupervised distribution of abortion pills, which the Biden-Harris Administration recklessly removed. Chemical abortion pills, when taken without the in-person physician visit providing proper medical oversight, needlessly endanger the lives, health, and future fertility of pregnant women.
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