The Supreme Court already told doctors they had no right to sue over the abortion pill.
Texas and Florida stepped in with their own lawsuit instead.
A federal judge just gave the FDA another reason to slow-walk it.
Judge Delays Mifepristone Case a Second Time Until December
Texas and Florida sued the FDA over its approval of mifepristone, the first drug used in a chemical abortion.
Their lawsuit argues the agency's own deregulation "placed women and girls in harm's way."
It also argues that weak adverse event reporting has hidden the "true rates of risks" tied to the drug.
Roughly one in twenty-five women who take these pills end up in an emergency room.
Up to seven percent need surgery just to finish what the pill started or stop the bleeding.
The FDA has logged thirty-six deaths tied to this drug since it approved it back in 2000.
That's not a rounding error, that's tens of thousands of women bleeding through a medical emergency with a drug company's name on the package and no doctor's name anywhere in the room.
This week, federal Judge Reed O'Connor paused that case for the second time.
The lawsuit won't move again until December 1, or until the FDA finishes its long-promised safety review, whichever comes first.
Even the two states suing the FDA agreed to give Washington more time.
Mifepristone keeps shipping through the mail in the meantime.
That review has already dragged on for a year, and pro-life advocates are running out of patience watching it slip past yet another deadline.
FDA Already Admitted It Could Pull Mifepristone Immediately
Here's the part Washington would rather you not notice.
In a separate case, Louisiana v. FDA, the agency admitted federal law lets the Secretary of Health and Human Services suspend a drug's approval "immediately" if it presents "an imminent hazard to the public health."
The FDA has that power sitting on the shelf right now.
It just won't use it.
Judge O'Connor didn't let mifepristone's manufacturers off the hook while he paused the case.
Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro asked him to dismiss the lawsuit outright.
He said no.
The companies that make and sell this drug still have to answer for it in court, they just don't have to answer yet.
Bishops and States Are Doing What Doctors Couldn't in 2024
Two years ago, the Supreme Court threw out a similar case because the doctors who filed it couldn't show they were personally harmed.
Justice Kavanaugh wrote that doctors can't sue the FDA just because other physicians might treat women who take this pill.
Texas and Florida don't have that problem, they're suing as sovereign states, and that's exactly why this case is still alive while the first one died.
Bishop Daniel Thomas, who leads the bishops' pro-life committee, wrote federal officials in May demanding the FDA move faster, not slower.
He told them vulnerable mothers "do not deserve the isolation and danger of telemedicine chemical abortion."
He also said in-person visits catch ectopic pregnancies, confirm how far along a pregnancy is, and can flag abuse and trafficking before it's too late.
None of that happens when a pill just shows up in the mail.
The FDA has emergency authority to pull this drug today.
Instead, it's letting the calendar run out until after the midterms.
Noah Brandt of Live Action put it bluntly: this timeline "indicates that they are prioritizing politics over the safety of American women and children."
He's not wrong, and pro-life families deserve better than a government that keeps finding new excuses to wait.
The case survived, the doctors' defeat in 2024 didn't kill this fight, and Texas and Florida are still standing where the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine got knocked down.
Either the FDA finally finishes what it promised, or a judge drags this fight back into the open right before Americans vote.
Either way, Texas and Florida aren't going anywhere.
Sources:
- Nancy Flanders, "Abortion Pill Lawsuit Delayed Again, Until as Late as December," Live Action, September 1, 2026.
- Carole Novielli, "Abortion Pill Risks 'Undercounted,' Court Document Claims," Live Action, August 31, 2025.
- Kate Quiñones, "Federal Judge Delays Mifepristone Lawsuit Until After Midterms," National Catholic Register/EWTN News, September 1, 2026.
- OSV News, "Bishops' Pro-Life Chair 'Urgently' Encourages FDA to Proceed With Safety Review on Mifepristone," May 6, 2026.
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh, FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, Supreme Court of the United States, June 13, 2024.
