By Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) -Missouri’s Republican attorney general filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing reproductive healthcare provider Planned Parenthood of misleading women about the potential risks of using the abortion drug mifepristone.
The lawsuit by the office of Attorney General Andrew Bailey claims Planned Parenthood tells patients that the drug is “safer than many other medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra,” while not disclosing that up to 4.6% of women visit emergency rooms after taking it.
The lawsuit in Missouri state court accuses Planned Parenthood of violating a state law banning deceptive business practices. The state is seeking millions of dollars in penalties, including up to $1,000 for each woman in Missouri who has been provided abortion pills by Planned Parenthood over the last five years.
“We are going to hold these charlatans and death dealers accountable,” Bailey said in a social media post.
Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mifepristone is taken in tandem with another drug, misoprostol, during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, and won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000.
Medication abortions account for more than half of U.S. abortions, though 28 states including Missouri restrict access, according to the nonprofit Guttmacher Institute, which focuses on reproductive health.
The FDA has repeatedly called mifepristone safe and effective as demonstrated over decades of use by millions of Americans, with rare adverse effects.
According to the FDA, between 2.9% and 4.6% of women who take the drug then visit an emergency room, and up to 0.6% of women who use mifepristone are hospitalized. A widely-cited 2021 study that purported to show an increase in emergency room visits after using mifepristone has been retracted.
In Wednesday’s lawsuit, Bailey’s office said that newer studies conducted since the administration of former President Joe Biden eased some restrictions on accessing mifepristone identified serious adverse effects in more than 10% of women who took a single dose of the drug.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Nia Williams)
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