West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Tuesday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit lodged by GenBioPro, a company that makes a generic version of the abortion pill mifepristone.
The company argues in their lawsuit filed Feb. 1 that West Virginia’s new abortion law violates several laws—that the state cannot enforce a “ban” of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drug. It’s asking the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Huntington Division to find the state’s abortion law unconstitutional.
However, mifepristone is not banned under the Unborn Child Protection Act—the state’s new abortion law. It can be used in cases where legal abortion can take place in compliance with state law (the Act prohibits abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to protect the life of the mother).
“The lawsuit this company filed does not have a legal leg to stand on—they’re trying to do an end-run around valid state laws,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “We put forth very strong arguments in our motion to dismiss and believe the court should see this case the way we do.”
“As I have said before, while it may not sit well with manufacturers of abortion drugs, the U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that regulating abortion is a state issue. I will stand strong for the life of the unborn and will not relent in our defense of this clearly constitutional law.”
The Attorney General argues in the motion there is nothing in the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act that gave the FDA such extraordinary power—there is nothing in the FDCA that preempts state law regulating abortion and there is nothing to suggest that Congress empowered the FDA to do so by simply evaluating the safety and efficacy of a particular drug.
“The Supreme Court was not ignorant of the FDA’s regulatory role when it overturned Roe v. Wade,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “The Supreme Court’s decision is very clear: the issue of abortion is left up to the states and their elected representatives.”
Original source can be found here.
