Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood, accusing the abortion provider of spreading “lies and disinformation” about the dangers of the abortion pill.
The state attorney general’s office announced the lawsuit last week. It accuses Planned Parenthood Federation of America of violating the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.
The lawsuit seeks over $1.8 million in civil penalties for daily violating state law, as much as $1,000 in damages or restitution for every Missouri woman Planned Parenthood provided abortion pills to over the last five years, reimbursing the state for taxpayer-funded emergency care derived from abortion pill complications, and a court order halting Planned Parenthood from continuing to promote certain claims about the abortion pill.
“The national Planned Parenthood organization is actively endangering the lives of women and girls across the country by spreading lies and disinformation about the powerful chemical abortion drug,” Bailey said in the announcement.
“The facts are clear: more than 4.5 percent of women who take this dangerous drug end up in the emergency room, yet Planned Parenthood compares it to Tylenol. This is a blatant violation of Missouri law, and I will not allow a death factory to lie to Missouri women in pursuit of its radical agenda.”
Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Danika Severino told St. Louis-based FOX 2 she doesn't believe the state is acting in the best interest of women and that “it’s only about attacking abortion.”
In March, Bailey issued an order mandating that Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which was formerly called Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, quit performing chemical abortions because it wasn't complying with a state law requiring abortion clinics to have “a valid plan to treat complications from chemically induced abortions.”
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers and Planned Parenthood Great Plains issued a statement calling the March order an “unfounded political attack” and accused Bailey of engaging in a “blatant attempt to deceive Missourians.”
“In reality, neither Planned Parenthood affiliate received any notice from the AG at the time of publishing his press release, and neither have been able to resume medication abortion services in Missouri,” the Planned Parenthood statement maintained. “In fact, both PPGR and PPGP submitted complication plans in February to comply with requirements set forth by the state, and continue to wait for any response from [the Department of Health and Senior Services].”
Mifepristone is the first drug in the chemical abortion regimen. The drug destroys the environment in the uterus and subsequently starves an unborn baby to death. It is believed to be used in around half of all pregnancy terminations in the United States.
According to the United States Food and Drug Administration, mifepristone was first approved in September 2000 for the purpose of terminating a pregnancy up to seven weeks gestation, which was then extended to 10 weeks (or 49 days from conception) in 2016.
Since many abortion clinics in the U.S. were ignoring the FDA’s protocol and using the drug in chemical abortions up to 60 days, states began passing regulations saying they had to follow the FDA’s protocol.
“They didn’t want to have to follow the FDA protocol, so [then President] Obama made the FDA change it to the later date, the 60 days, to match up with what the abortion providers were doing," Sue Turner, director of Alabama Physicians for Life, previously told The Christian Post.
“The drug was less effective," she said, “and abortionists then had to also perform a surgical abortion, which meant that women were being charged for both chemical and surgical procedures.”
Many pro-life groups have argued that mifepristone poses a danger to women who take it, with the Ethics and Public Policy Center releasing a report earlier this year that concluded that over 10% of women who took the drug experienced adverse health effects.
However, pro-choice groups have argued that the drug is a safe way to terminate a pregnancy, with a 2023 analysis by CNN claiming that it is safer than more widely accepted drugs like penicillin and Viagra.
