U.S. Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine
Description: By eliminating necessary safeguards for pregnant girls and women who undergo the dangerous mifepristone abortion drug regimen, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration failed to abide by its legal obligations to protect the health, safety, and welfare of girls and women.
FDA's recklessness continues for now
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Erin Hawley, vice president of the ADF Center for Life and Regulatory Practice, regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Thursday in U.S. Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine:
“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court did not reach the merits of the FDA’s lawless removal of commonsense safety standards for abortion drugs. Nothing in today’s decision changes the fact that the FDA’s own label says that roughly one in 25 women who take chemical abortion drugs will end up in the emergency room—a dangerous reality the doctors and medical associations we represent in this case know all too well. The FDA recklessly leaves women and girls to take these high-risk drugs all alone in their homes or dorm rooms, without requiring the ongoing, in-person care of a doctor. While we’re disappointed with the court’s decision, we will continue to advocate for women and work to restore commonsense safeguards for abortion drugs—like an initial office visit to screen for ectopic pregnancies. And we are grateful that three states stand ready to hold the FDA accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of women and girls across this country.
“The court recognized that our doctors would have standing to protect their conscience rights. The government’s initial position was that federal law would not protect our doctors from being forced to participate in abortions. Yet at the Supreme Court, the government changed its position and said that federal conscience laws definitively protect doctors in these circumstances. This about-face explains why the Supreme Court parted ways with every other court to consider this case. And it resulted in the court recognizing that '[f]ederal law fully protects doctors against being required to provide abortions or other medical treatment against their consciences.'”
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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ABOUT Erin Morrow Hawley
Erin Morrow Hawley serves as senior counsel and vice president of the Center for Life and regulatory practice at Alliance Defending Freedom. Before joining ADF, Hawley practiced appellate law at Kirkland and Ellis LLP, Bancroft LLP, and King & Spalding LLP. Hawley has litigated extensively before the U.S. Supreme Court as well as numerous federal courts of appeals and state courts of last resort. She also worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, serving as counsel to Attorney General Michael Mukasey. As an academic, Hawley served as an associate professor of law at the University of Missouri and she also taught constitutional law as a senior fellow at the Kinder Institute for Constitutional Democracy. Hawley is a former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Hawley received her bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Texas A&M University and her law degree from Yale Law School where she served as a Coker Fellow in Constitutional Law and on the Yale Law Journal. She is an active member of the Missouri and District of Columbia bars and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and various federal courts of appeals.
ABOUT Erik Baptist
Erik Baptist serves as senior counsel and director of the Center for Life at Alliance Defending Freedom where he leads the team’s litigation and advocacy efforts to protect unborn babies and their mothers from the harms of abortion. In this leadership role, Baptist also collaborates with pro-life allies, works with Members of Congress and their staff, and engages with international, national, and local media on pro-life matters. Washingtonian magazine named Baptist as one of the Most Influential People Shaping Policy in Washington in 2024. As a member of the D.C. and Virginia Bars, he has litigated before the U.S. Supreme Court and many federal appellate and district courts. Before joining ADF, Baptist was a partner at one of the largest law firms in Washington, D.C., representing clients in high-stakes litigation and regulatory matters. He also previously served as a senior executive service political appointee at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Baptist earned his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School.