Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), who has represented New Jersey’s 4th district in the U.S. Congress since 1981, and Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), led a group of 60 members of Congress in filing an amicus brief. The brief supports Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s lawsuit that seeks to restore the requirement for in-person dispensing of mifepristone, a chemical abortion drug. This requirement was removed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the Biden administration.
Rep. Chris Smith stated, “Mifepristone is baby poison that starves the innocent unborn child to death and is extremely dangerous to women.” He added, “Under ‘Abortion President’ Joe Biden, the FDA recklessly circumvented the law to remove the in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone, allowing women to easily receive it through the mail and ignoring the dangers these powerful abortion drugs pose to women.”
Smith also criticized what he described as negligence by the FDA regarding mail-order access to mifepristone. He said, “The FDA has engaged in gross negligence and a massive cover up of mifepristone’s harmful effects on women. A historic report released by the Ethics and Public Policy Center found that more than one out of ten (10.93%) women who take the chemical abortion drug mifepristone experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days—over 22 times higher than the rate currently admitted by the FDA.”
Senator Cassidy expressed his support for Attorney General Murrill’s actions: “I thank Attorney General Murrill for defending women and babies in Louisiana and across the country. Chemical abortion drugs kill innocent children and put mothers’ lives at risk,” he said. “Safeguards protecting against coercion, such as the in-person dispensing requirement, must be reinstated immediately.”
The amicus brief argues that removing patient safeguards has created risks for women’s health and safety. It states: “[B]y expressly authorizing mail-order chemical abortion drugs, the FDA is endangering women’s health and safety by eliminating a medically necessary in-person examination to screen for contraindications.” The brief also raises concerns about potential coercion or intimate partner violence if there is no face-to-face evaluation: “a woman seeking an abortion may be facing coercion or intimate partner violence (IPV), and without an in-person evaluation, a provider’s ability to discern that is limited.”
The members contend that political motivations influenced changes at the FDA: “the Biden FDA reached a predetermined and politically motivated conclusion to expand access to abortion drugs, despite lacking enough evidence to show the change would be safe. This is a clear violation of the FDA’s legal responsibilities…”
The document highlights Plaintiff Rosalie Markezich’s case: “A doctor did not examine Ms. Markezich nor detect the coercion she experienced. Her boyfriend ordered mifepristone from a California doctor and coerced Ms. Markezich to take it, resulting in her great distress and the loss of her baby.”
The brief asks for preliminary relief from the court: “the FDA’s job is to ensure drug safety, not to encourage the risky use of drugs just to further former President Biden’s pro-abortion agenda. Exceeding its mandate is illegal and also harmful, both to the separation of powers and to women taking mifepristone.”
Smith was born in Rahway, New Jersey in 1953; he currently lives in Manchester Township.He replaced Frank Thompson when he began serving New Jersey’s 4th district. Smith graduated with a BS from The College of New Jersey in 1975.
