- A Louisiana woman allegedly coerced by her boyfriend into taking mail-order abortion drugs has filed a lawsuit with the state of Louisiana and Attorney General Liz Murrill against the FDA and HHS.
- The lawsuit challenges the FDA’s removal of in-person requirements for abortion drugs, a change made under the Biden administration after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade.
- Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) argues that the FDA’s policy endangers women, citing risks such as emergency room visits and follow-up surgeries.
- Plaintiffs seek to reinstate in-person safeguards and prevent out-of-state doctors from bypassing pro-life state laws by mailing abortion drugs.
For the past three years, abortion drug providers have been able to circumvent pro-life states’ regulations on abortion by sending the medications through the mail. A lawsuit filed by a woman who was allegedly coerced by her boyfriend into taking mail-order abortion drugs aims to reinstate safeguards the Biden administration stripped away.
Legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) reported that the Biden-era Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began rescinding regulations on abortion drugs after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. While women had previously been required to obtain abortion drugs in person, the FDA’s changes allowed them to order the medication by mail.
A report from the Society of Family Planning’s has shown that abortion levels rose nationwide after the Dobbs decision. Another report from local news outlet WWNO found that Louisiana, a state with stringent regulations on abortion, saw more mail-order abortions in 2024 than abortions in a clinic in either 2020 or 2021.
According to the nonprofit, the FDA has admitted that abortion drugs can pose serious risks and complications to women who take the medication, with about one in 25 women ending up in the emergency room and up to 7% of women requiring a follow-up surgery.
“Despite those numbers, the Biden FDA made these high-risk drugs available in the mail without any interaction with a doctor to evaluate whether the woman is even pregnant, the gestational age of her baby, if she is ordering the drugs willingly, or if the recipient is an abuser,” ADF noted.
Louisiana resident Rosalie Markezich became a victim of mail-order abortion drugs when her then-boyfriend, who has a criminal record, became angry about her desire to keep their baby. Markezich says her former boyfriend coerced her into taking the medication, which he had ordered from a doctor in California. Represented by ADF, Markezich filed a lawsuit alongside Louisiana and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill against the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services Oct. 6.
Through the lawsuit, they hope to ensure that pro-life laws cannot be dismissed by out-of-state abortion providers and protect women and unborn children from harm.
“If the Biden FDA had not removed in-person dispensing, my then-boyfriend would not have been able to obtain abortion drugs and pressure me to take them against my will,” Markezich said, according to ADF.
She later added, “If mail-order abortion wasn’t a thing, I’m 100% sure I would have my child.”
Murrill, a Republican, called out-of-state abortion providers “drug dealers” and said that those who send abortion drugs through the mail violate Louisiana and other pro-life states’ criminal laws.
“Louisiana’s new lawsuit seeks to hold the FDA accountable for unlawfully removing its original safeguard that ensured women receive an in-person office visit to check for life-threatening conditions, such as ectopic pregnancy, before taking high-risk abortion drugs,” she said, according to ADF.
“The FDA’s reckless actions also opened wide the door for women to suffer reproductive coercion and assault. We are simply asking the FDA to restore this basic safety standard for women’s health.”
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