Mifepristone Drug Maker Drops Challenge to Mississippi Abortion Restriction

A manufacturer of the drug used in medication abortions Thursday dropped its bid to sell mifepristone in Mississippi despite the state's recently enacted abortion restriction.

GenBioPro Inc said it was voluntarily dismissing its case in a filing in federal court in Jackson. The company had argued federal regulators' approval of mifepristone to induce abortion at up to 10 weeks of pregnancy overrode the state's prohibition on nearly all abortions.

Nevada-based GenBioPro did not say why it was dropping its lawsuit in the filing, but noted it was doing so without prejudice, which means it can refile it. The company did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Mississippi in 2007 passed a "trigger law" that would ban abortion with only narrow exceptions in the event the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, its 1973 landmark ruling which established abortion rights nationwide.

The Supreme Court did that in June in Dobbs v. Jackson, opening the door to new abortion bans around the country. About half of U.S. states are expected to restrict abortion or have already done so in the wake of Dobbs, including 13 with trigger laws like Mississippi.

GenBioPro had first sued the state in 2019 to challenge restrictions on mifepristone, including an effective ban on prescribing it through telemedicine. After the state's trigger law took effect, the company argued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone effectively shielded the drug from the new restriction.

The Biden administration said states may not ban mifepristone, but had not intervened in the case or said whether it supported GenBioPro's position.

More than half of abortions in the U.S. are performed through medication.

Even before Dobbs, state laws making it difficult to access abortion fueled increasing demand for the pills, which some women have bought online from overseas illegally.