Should Okla. require RU-486 users to follow FDA recommendations?
Alliance Defending Freedom, FRC file friend-of-the-court brief with US Supreme Court
Monday, Apr 8, 2013
Attorney sound bite: Casey Mattox
WASHINGTON — Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Monday in support of an Oklahoma law that requires doctors prescribing the abortion drug RU-486 to use only the FDA required protocol for the drug. The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down the law as an “undue burden” on those seeking abortions.
“One of the government’s top priorities should be to protect the health and safety of its citizens, and that’s all that Oklahoma is trying to do,” said Senior Counsel Casey Mattox. “The unapproved use of RU-486 has been traced to many side effects and the deaths of several women. Oklahoma is right to place the health and safety of its citizens above the bottom line and ideology of abortionists.”
In 2011, the Center for Reproductive Rights challenged the Oklahoma law, HB 1970, which prohibited any off-label use of RU-486.
A state judge temporarily blocked the law in October 2011 and then permanently struck it down in May of last year. In December, the Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision.
The brief filed in Cline v. Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice explains that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled “there can be no question of the authority of the State in the exercise of its police power to regulate the administration, sale, prescription and use of dangerous…drugs.”
The brief also explains that the “law imposes no undue burden on access to abortion, but merely relies on the expertise of the FDA to protect the health and safety of Oklahoma women.”
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
“One of the government’s top priorities should be to protect the health and safety of its citizens, and that’s all that Oklahoma is trying to do,” said Senior Counsel Casey Mattox. “The unapproved use of RU-486 has been traced to many side effects and the deaths of several women. Oklahoma is right to place the health and safety of its citizens above the bottom line and ideology of abortionists.”
In 2011, the Center for Reproductive Rights challenged the Oklahoma law, HB 1970, which prohibited any off-label use of RU-486.
A state judge temporarily blocked the law in October 2011 and then permanently struck it down in May of last year. In December, the Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision.
The brief filed in Cline v. Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice explains that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled “there can be no question of the authority of the State in the exercise of its police power to regulate the administration, sale, prescription and use of dangerous…drugs.”
The brief also explains that the “law imposes no undue burden on access to abortion, but merely relies on the expertise of the FDA to protect the health and safety of Oklahoma women.”
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
# # # | Ref. 40699