Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, alleging the organization misled consumers about the safety of the abortion drug mifepristone. The suit, filed in Cole County Circuit Court, seeks over $1.8 million in civil penalties and restitution for every Missouri woman given the pill in the past five years.
Bailey claims the national organization falsely equated the safety of mifepristone to over-the-counter drugs like Tylenol and Viagra. The lawsuit highlights an archived Planned Parenthood webpage that said medication abortion was safer than those drugs.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration acknowledges that mifepristone can cause serious infections or bleeding in rare cases, but clinical trials show serious adverse events occur in less than 0.5% of patients. Bailey, however, cites studies estimating emergency care may be required in up to 4.6% of cases.
Though Planned Parenthood Great Plains hasn’t provided abortion pills in Missouri since 2018, Bailey argues that national advertisements targeted Missouri residents and directed them to obtain medication abortions in states like Kansas and Illinois, where abortion remained legal after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
“This lawsuit is about holding Planned Parenthood accountable for misrepresenting the risks of abortion pills,” Bailey said in a press release, adding, “Planned Parenthood’s false advertising has a national reach, including targeted claims against Missouri women.”
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