New York – New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a statement following the United States Supreme Court's decision in U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, which reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s decision that would have significantly limited access to mifepristone, a drug commonly used in medication abortions:
“This ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court marks a significant victory in protecting the reproductive rights of Americans and ensuring that science is the guiding light for medical decisions and rulemaking. I am very proud of the work my office did, together with our coalition partners, to make sound, legal arguments to support the FDA and its commonsense, fact-based rules about how to access mifepristone. While we may be celebrating today, we also know that anti-choice forces will not stop trying to eliminate bodily autonomy and the right to privacy for millions of Americans. Abortion care is health care, and regardless of what happens on a national level, my office will always do everything in our power to protect and safeguard these rights for New Yorkers.”
Attorney General James led a coalition of 24 attorneys general urging the Supreme Court to reverse the Fifth Circuit’s decision restricting how mifepristone can be prescribed and dispensed. The coalition submitted an amicus brief highlighting that the Fifth Circuit’s decision ignored decades of high-quality evidence and clinical research demonstrating mifepristone's safety and efficacy. The brief also noted that the FDA’s 2016 approval of a modified label and reformed conditions for prescribing mifepristone were supported by robust safety data and extensive clinical experience.
The coalition expressed concern that the lower court's decision could compel many individuals to undergo procedural abortion, increasing risks, costs, delays, causing widespread confusion among providers, distributors, pharmacies, stifling innovation, and affecting thousands of drugs' development nationwide.
Attorney General James has been a prominent advocate for abortion rights and access to reproductive healthcare. In May 2024, she filed a lawsuit against an anti-abortion group and 11 crisis pregnancy centers over scientifically unfounded abortion reversal treatments. In April 2024, she led a coalition calling on Congress to expand IVF access. In March 2024, she spearheaded an amicus brief urging courts to uphold emergency abortion access. In January 2024, she co-authored an amicus brief seeking protection against Idaho’s restrictive abortion laws threatening patients and those assisting them. In December 2023, she secured a court order stopping militant anti-abortion group Red Rose Rescue from obstructing abortion care access in New York.