The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday challenging a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule that requires women to have an in-person clinic visit in order to obtain drugs to induce an abortion, according to Breitbart News.
The ACLU filed suit in Maryland on behalf of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, which claim that the FDA rule requiring women to first have an in-person visit with the abortion provider is a “burdensome barrier.”
The complaint reads, “Of the more than 20,000 drugs regulated by the FDA, mifepristone is the only one that patients must receive in person at a hospital, clinic, or medical office, yet may self-administer, unsupervised, at a location of their choosing.” ACOG says the rules “unnecessarily restrict access to care.”
“Using this COVID-19 crisis to force the sales of life-ending drugs in ways that risk women’s lives should embarrass the abortion industry,” says Students for Life of America Pres. Kristan Hawkins. “But perhaps that is asking too much of people who end life for a living.”