North Carolina Attorney General Won’t Defend State Restrictions on Abortion Pills

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein will not defend the state’s restrictions on the provision of abortion pills, which are being challenged in the lawsuit, and will instead argue that the restrictions preempt federal rules protecting access to the pill, Stein’s office said Monday.

Democrat Stein’s decision means that Republican legislators who want to keep the restrictions will have to try to formally intervene in a federal lawsuit filed by Amy Bryant, the doctor who prescribes the drug mifepristone.

A lawsuit filed in January in U.S. District Court in Durham and a separate lawsuit challenging restrictions on abortion pills in West Virginia are seen as the start of a legal battle over access to drugs. The lawsuit in Texas poses a threat to the nationwide availability of medical abortion, which currently accounts for the majority of abortions in the US. A case filed by anti-abortion activists seeks to overturn the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.

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Bryant’s lawsuit seeks to block compliance with state laws and regulations that he says hinder the ability to provide patients with mifepristone. The lawsuit mentions the authority Congress has given the US Food and Drug Administration to regulate FDA-approved drugs.

North Carolina laws require that the pill be dispensed in person after a 72-hour waiting period, the lawsuit says, and only after patients receive state-mandated counseling and, in some cases, an ultrasound.

Stein, who supports abortion rights and is running for governor next year, is the defendant in the lawsuit, along with the district attorney and state health and medical officials. Stein and attorneys from the state Department of Justice are tasked with defending state laws in court.

In this case, Bryant’s arguments about federal preemption are “legally correct,” Sarah Boyes, general counsel for the state Department of Justice, wrote in a letter to the legislature’s lawyers from House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger.

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“Under its statutory authority, the FDA has determined that restrictions such as those placed under North Carolina law would overburden patients with access to a safe and effective drug,” Boyes wrote. “The department’s documents in (the lawsuit) on behalf of Attorney General Stein will reflect this legal analysis on the merits.”

Representatives for Berger and Moore did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last June that struck down Roe v. Wade and transferred abortion decisions to the states brought renewed attention to medical abortion. Nineteen states, including North Carolina and West Virginia, have laws that control how, when, and where doctors can prescribe and dispense abortion medication.

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In a written statement relating to Monday’s letter, Stein said “North Carolina’s restriction on women’s use of the prescriptions they need to exercise their reproductive freedoms violates federal law and the Constitution.”

In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of mifepristone to terminate a pregnancy in combination with a second drug, misoprostol. The combination is approved for use up to the 10th week of pregnancy. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has canceled the personal presence of the pill, which could be mailed or picked up at regular pharmacies.