The Justice Department told a federal judge Tuesday that current Food and Drug Administration regulations allowing the abortion pill mifepristone to be shipped through the mail do not prevent states from enforcing laws designed to protect the unborn. The position came in a court filing asking the judge to reject a request from Louisiana seeking to block the FDA’s existing rules.
In its filing, the Justice Department argued that Louisiana is still free to enact and enforce pro-life policies following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The department said the state has not suffered a sovereign injury because federal regulators are not stopping Louisiana from applying its own abortion laws, including against out-of-state prescribers who may be sending abortion pills into the state.
“Louisiana suffers no sovereign injury because it remains free to make and enforce its pro-life policies after Dobbs,” the filing stated, adding that federal officials are not standing in the way of state enforcement efforts.
Louisiana, along with a woman named Rosalie Markezich, sued the FDA last November, asking a judge to suspend the agency’s current Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy standards for mifepristone. Markezich says she was coerced into taking abortion pills that were illegally ordered and mailed into Louisiana by her ex-boyfriend, a claim that has become central to the lawsuit.
The Justice Department told the court that the FDA is currently reviewing the safety standards governing mifepristone and warned that a judicial order blocking the existing rules could be disruptive. According to the filing, such a ruling could short-circuit the agency’s ongoing review and study of the drug’s safety risks.
A White House official said that the filing should not be read as a defense of abortion drug policies put in place under former President Joe Biden. The official said the Trump administration has raised concerns about mifepristone and is allowing the FDA’s review process to move forward.
“Legally speaking, it’s a question of standing,” the official said, explaining that the administration is asking the court not to interfere while the FDA completes its work.
The debate comes as abortion pills continue to be mailed into states where medication abortions are illegal, including Louisiana. This practice, which was permitted during the COVID pandemic, has continued even after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Shield laws passed in states such as California and New York have made it harder for Republican attorneys general to prosecute doctors who send abortion pills across state lines, a situation Louisiana argues is enabled by FDA regulations.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have both said the agency is conducting a study on mifepristone, though pro-life advocates and lawmakers have demanded faster action.
The Justice Department said blocking the current rules would interfere with the FDA’s review, noting that the Supreme Court has recognized that evaluating drug safety is the agency’s responsibility, not the courts’. A department spokesman said the DOJ remains committed to President Donald Trump’s pro-life agenda while seeking more time for the FDA to complete its review.
Pro-life groups strongly disagreed. Alliance Defending Freedom argued that abortion drugs continue to flow into Louisiana in large numbers and called on the court to act immediately. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the filing shows the FDA admits its rules are flawed while claiming the state lacks the right to challenge them.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America also criticized the filing, with its president calling the Justice Department’s position unacceptable and urging immediate action to reinstate stricter guardrails on abortion pills.
