60 GOP Lawmakers File Brief Supporting Louisiana Lawsuit on Abortion Pill Regulations

A coalition of 60 Republican lawmakers filed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit to limit the abortion pill after the Trump administration requested a pause to the case. On Friday, 58 Republican representatives and senators, led by Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, filed the amicus brief in support of Louisiana's effort to restore the in-person dispensing requirement on the abortion pill.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a lawsuit in 2025 challenging a Biden-era rule allowing abortion drugs to be dispensed to women through the mail without seeing a doctor first. A hearing for State of Louisiana v. Food and Drug Administration is scheduled for Feb. 24.

Ahead of the hearing, President Donald Trump's Department of Justice asked a federal court to pause Louisiana's case against the Food and Drug Administration while the agency conducts a safety review into the abortion drug mifepristone.

Louisiana filed the lawsuit alongside resident Rosalie Markezich, who says her boyfriend coerced her into taking abortion pills, which he ordered from a doctor in California. While Louisiana law prohibits abortions in almost all cases, the lack of an in-person dispensing requirement on the drugs allowed him to obtain the drugs out of state through the mail.

The GOP lawmakers argue that former President Joe Biden violated federal law by removing the in-person dispensing requirement and that these protections should be reinstated. When Congress passed the Comstock Act, it declared that abortion drugs are "nonmailable matter" by the United States Postal Service and private carriers, but the Biden administration illegally allowed abortion pills to be shipped across the country, the brief states.

"This action contravenes federal laws passed by the elected representatives of the American people," according to the brief. "It also contravenes state laws prohibiting abortion, such as Louisiana's, even though 'the authority to regulate abortion' belongs to 'the people and their elected representatives,' not unelected bureaucrats."

The Biden FDA also did not properly consider the safety risk of the abortion pill when removing the in-person dispensing requirement, according to the lawmakers. A study from the Ethics and Public Policy Center found that 11% of women experience adverse health effects, such as sepsis, infection, and hemorrhaging, within 45 days following a mifepristone abortion.

"The Biden FDA did not have a sufficient evidentiary basis to conclude that eliminating the in-person dispensing requirement was safe," the brief says. "And because no in-person visit is required now, women cannot be meaningfully screened for serious contraindications for the use of this drug, such as ectopic pregnancy."

In the brief, the 60 members write: "[B]y expressly authorizing mail-order chemical abortion drugs, the FDA is endangering women's health and safety by eliminating a medically necessary in-person examination to screen for contraindications." Moreover, they raise concerns that "a woman seeking an abortion may be facing coercion or intimate partner violence (IPV), and without an in-person evaluation, a provider's ability to discern that is limited."

The brief notes that Plaintiff Rosalie Markezich was personally coerced into taking the abortion pill. "A doctor did not examine Ms. Markezich nor detect the coercion she experienced. Her boyfriend ordered mifepristone from a California doctor and coerced Ms. Markezich to take it, resulting in her great distress and the loss of her baby."

The amicus brief supports the motion for preliminary relief and asks for a preliminary injunction ordering the FDA to suspend or withdraw the 2023 Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy while the case proceeds.

Mifepristone has become the most common abortion method, accounting for about 63% of all abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood's research arm. However, this is likely an undercount, according to the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, because this count does not include abortions outside the formal health care system or under shield laws.

Shield laws allow abortionists to mail abortion drugs to women, including those in states that prohibit most abortions or impose gestational limits.