DREDF filed an amicus brief in Louisiana v. FDA, a case that threatens to significantly restrict nationwide access to mifepristone, a safe and widely used medication for abortion and miscarriage care. The lawsuit seeks to block patients from receiving mifepristone by mail or picking it up at a local pharmacy, instead requiring that it be dispensed in person at a hospital, clinic, or medical office. If successful, these restrictions would apply nationwide—including in states where abortion remains legally protected—and would create serious barriers for disabled people who already face systemic obstacles to accessing health care.
DREDF’s brief argues that eliminating telemedicine and pharmacy access to mifepristone would harm disabled people by removing critical and accessible pathways to the medication. The brief explains that these restrictions would conflict with federal disability rights laws requiring equal access and reasonable modifications in health care and would perpetuate disability discrimination by limiting access to essential reproductive and miscarriage care.
The brief was written jointly with attorneys from A&O Shearman and filed with the assistance of local counsel at Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver, L.L.C. and Kristen Amond LLC. Joining DREDF as amici were disability rights organizations, advocates, scholars, and public servants whose perspectives—grounded in lived experience, advocacy, research, and public service—highlight the far-reaching consequences this case could have for disabled people nationwide.
