Amicus Curiae Brief — Danco Laboratories, LLC, Applicant v. Louisiana, et al.
Supreme Court briefMay 7, 2026
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NOS. 25A1207 AND 25A1208
IN THE
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
________________
DANCO LABORATORIES, LLC, APPLICANT,
V.
STATE OF LOUISIANA, BY & THROUGH ITS ATTORNEY GENERAL, LIZ
MURRILL, ET AL., RESPONDENTS
________________
GENBIOPRO, INC., APPLICANT,
V.
STATE OF LOUISIANA, BY & THROUGH ITS ATTORNEY GENERAL, LIZ
MURRILL, ET AL., RESPONDENTS
_________________________________________
AMICI CURIAE BRIEF OF 2,794 WOMEN INJURED BY ABORTION, THE JUSTICE
FOUNDATION AND ITS CENTER AGAINST FORCED ABORTIONS, THE NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN LAWMAKERS AND THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
FAMILY AND LIFE ADVOCATES
IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENTS
_________________________
T. HOUSTON MIDDLETON, IV
Counsel For Amici
hmiddleton@lundyllp.com
HUNTER W. LUNDY
hlundy@lundyllp.com
LUNDY, L.L.P.
501 Broad Street
Lake Charles, LA 70601
(337) 439-0707
MARY J. BROWNING
Counsel of Record for Amici
mbrowning@thejusticefoundation.org
ALLAN E. PARKER
aparker@thejusticefoundation.org
Counsel for Amici
R. CLAYTON TROTTER
Counsel for Amici
info@thejusticefoundation.org
THE JUSTICE FOUNDATION
8023 Vantage Dr., Ste. 1275
San Antonio, TX 78230
(210) 614-7157 Fax: (210) 614-6656
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ..... ……………………………………………………………………………. i
Table of Authorities…………….………………………………………………………………..ii
Interest of 2,794 Amici Curiae Women Injured By Abortion, The Justice
Foundation and Its Center Against Forced Abortions, the National Association of
Christian Lawmakers, and The National Institute of Family Law Advocates .........1
Summary of Argument .............................................................................................2
Argument ..................................................................................................................4
I.
Rosalie Has Article III Standing to Challenge the FDA’s Actions Because
She Was Directly Affected By The FDA’s 2023 REMS ....................................... 4
II. The FDA Acted Arbitrarily and Capriciously By Ignoring the Injury to
Women from Abortion-Producing Drugs ............................................................. 8
III. Abortion Pills Increase the Risk and Frequency of Injury Through Coerced
or Forced Abortion.............................................................................................. 14
IV. Violating the Constitution, The Comstock Act and Balancing the Harms .... 16
A. Why the Constitution Matters ................................................................... 16
B. Women Suffer Other Harm, Including the Required Personal Disposal of
Human Remains.................................................................................................18
C. Safe Haven Law Alternative ......................................................................19
Conclusion ..............................................................................................................20
Prayer ......................................................................................................................21
i
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
CASES
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 142 S. Ct. 2228, 2284 (2022) ……………. 8, 17, 19, 20
FDA, et al. v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, 602 U.S. 634 (2024)………………..…….….5
Gonzales v. Carhart 550 U.S. 124, at 159 (2007) .............................................................. 3, 19, 20
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) ......................................................................................... 17, 20
CONSTITUTION:
Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution……………………..…………………………....7, 16
Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution……………………………….....7, 8, 16, 17, 20
STATUTES
18 U.S.C. § 1461……………..…..….……………………………………..………...….13, 15, 18
OTHER AUTHORITIES
ABC13, MSN 2/8/24: https://www.lmtonline.com/local/article/laredo-police-woman-triedforcing-teen-daughter-17880448.php ...........................................................................................16
Adam Zuvanich, Houston Public Media | Posted on February 8, 2024, 3:03 PM (Last Updated:
February 9, 2024, 5:21 PM):
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/court/2024/02/08/476976/houston-attorneyaccused-of-slipping-abortion-drugs-into-pregnant-wifes-drinks-pleads-guilty-sentenced-tojail/................................................................................................................................ ..............14
Craddock, Joshua J., “Personhood After Dobbs” (May 16, 2025) Catholic U. L. Rev. 536
(2025)…………………………………………………………………………………….……….8
Finnis, J., & George, R. P. Equal Protection And The Unborn Child: A Dobbs Brief, Harvard
Journal of Law and Public Policy, 45(3), 927-1031(2022)…………………………………..…..8
FoxNews.com, Published January 07, 2024, By Kelly Lester: “I had 4 abortions. The abortion
pill was the worst, but women aren't getting the full story”
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/4-abortions-abortion-pill-words-women-getting-fullstory.print ..………………………………...................................................................................6
Craddock, Joshua J., “Protecting Prenatal Persons: Does the Fourteenth Amendment Prohibit
Abortion?” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 40, No. 2 (2017)……………….…8
ii
Joseph, Anthony, “The ‘Pennsylvania Model’: The Judicial Criminalization of Abortion in
Pennsylvania, 1838-1850,” The American Journal of Legal History, July 2007, Vol. 49, No. 3, p.
284-320, Oxford University Press. ……………………………………………………………..8
iii
Interest of 2,794 Amici Curiae Women Injured By Abortion, The Justice Foundation and Its
Center Against Forced Abortions, the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, and
The National Institute of Family Law Advocates1
Amici Women Injured by Abortion2 are women who were injured by their own abortions.
Amici Women Injured by Abortion suffered grievous psychological injuries, but many suffered
severe physical complications, as well. Amici Women thus have a profound interest in protecting
other women from such injuries, and a unique, highly relevant perspective to aid the Court.
The Justice Foundation (TJF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, charitable, public interest litigation
corporation which, since 2000, has represented Women Injured By Abortion, at no charge, in
significant cases affecting women’s health related to abortion. The Justice Foundation has helped
give women’s testimony a voice in significant national litigation.3
Center Against Forced Abortions: The Justice Foundation has now collected 4,855 legally
admissible affidavits or declarations under penalty of perjury from Women Injured By Abortion.
As these were collected, it became clear that once abortion was made legal, or widely accessible
(even if illegal as in Louisiana), one of the ways abortion hurts women is that it allows others to
force, coerce, or unduly pressure them to have an abortion. The most common forced abortions
are: (1) parents or guardians forcing a minor; (2) The father of the child (as in Plaintiff Rosalie’s
No counsel for a party authored this brief in whole or in part, and no counsel or party made a
monetary contribution intended to fund the preparation or submission of this brief.
2
See Exhibit 1- List 2,794 Amici Women Injured by Abortion (women’s names reflected as
authorized by each woman.)
3
This Court has stated “ . . . it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret
their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained.” See Brief for Sandra Cano
et al. [180 Women Injured By Abortion-Represented by The Justice Foundation] as Amici
Curiae in No. 05-380, pp. 22-24. “Severe depression and loss of esteem can follow.” Ibid.
Gonzales v. Carhart 550 U.S. 124, 159 (2007).
1
1
case); and (3) prostitution and human trafficking. To prevent such common injuries The Justice
Foundation founded and operates its Center Against Forced Abortions.4
National Association of Christian Lawmakers: The mission of the National Association of
Christian Lawmakers, a 501(c)3 organization is to bring federal, state, and local lawmakers
together in support of clear biblical principles. It does this by meeting regularly to discuss major
issues and to propose model statutes, ordinances, and resolutions to address major policy concerns
from a biblical worldview. The Louisiana Chairman is State Senator Mark Abraham.
The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) is a national legal network
for pro-life pregnancy resource centers and medical clinics. Its purpose is to provide legal training,
consultation, and education to its membership of pro-life centers, which number approximately
1,800. Of these members, over 1,300 operate as medical clinics providing medical services, such
as ultrasound confirmation of pregnancy to mothers contemplating abortion, and STI testing and
treatment. It is the mission of NIFLA and its members to provide alternatives to abortion for
women considering abortion through the provision of life-affirming services. The legal status of
abortion impacts the direction and programs offered in such agencies. Thus, NIFLA has a unique
interest and perspective helpful to this Court in protecting and helping women.
Summary of Argument
The State of Louisiana (hereinafter, Louisiana) and Rosalie Markezich (hereinafter,
Rosalie), Respondents, have Article III standing to bring this action. Respondent Rosalie is
similarly situated with other Louisiana women, and others across the country, who are coerced or
pressured into ingesting abortion-producing drugs. Respondent Louisiana bears the consequences
of the arbitrary and capricious actions of the FDA by bearing the burden of funding the real medical
4
www.thejusticefoundation.org/CAFA/
2
care of those who: (1) voluntarily receive mail-ordered abortion-producing drugs; as well as, (2)
those who are deceived into thinking the pills are “safe” (see reports infra); and/or (3) those
pressured or coerced into unwanted abortions. Respondents, as well as Amici Women Hurt by
Abortion, and some specifically named amici, come face to face with this as a direct result of
FDA’s actions removing essential protections such as in-person visits and dispensation of the drug
that were part of the earlier Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS), through the FDA’s
arbitrary and capricious 2023 REMS.
The FDA’s approval of the abortion-producing drug protocol, and the removal of the
minimum safeguards, has produced and will produce injuries to women like Rosalie and others,
like those reflected in this brief, infra. This harm is directly caused by FDA’s actions. The FDA
removed protections and safeguards for women and minor girls who endure chemical abortion,
either of their own volition or through coercion. Women like Rosalie, who have been injured once,
are still vulnerable to further male violence.
This harm is further exasperated by the fact that the FDA abortion-producing protocol is
in contravention of the federal law known as the Comstock Act and state sovereignty. That Act
prohibits mailing abortion-producing drugs or sending them by common carrier into Louisiana,
whose elected officials have set reasonable parameters on access to abortion. These parameters are
designed to protect women, minor girls and “infant lives”, per Gonzales5. The direct harm to
women can be redressed by providing the remedies Louisiana requests.
5
“…some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created
sustained…severe depression and loss of esteem can follow. Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124,
at 159 (2007). (The Supreme Court noting that the child in the womb is an infant life at the moment
of abortion).
3
Much harm has come to women from these abortion-producing drugs. The FDA has
arbitrarily and capriciously chosen to look away from the harm. Its actions of eliminating minimal
safeguards (REMS), including lack of any physician involvement AND removing the reporting of
almost all adverse events, combined with mail-order delivery contrary to federal law, is arbitrary
and capricious. This brief presents the ugly truth of the FDA abortion-producing drug protocol.
Argument
I.
Rosalie Has Article III Standing to Challenge the FDA’s Actions Because She
Was Directly Affected By The FDA’s 2023 REMS
Women with first-hand accounts of their own experiences of chemical abortion can
present the best evidence of the harm of abortion. While surgical abortion can also be devastating
to women, the abortion pill is an even more horrific experience which lends credibility to the
experience of Rosalie and to the steps Louisiana has taken to protect its women and minor girls
from such injury.
Amici are extremely grateful to Rosalie for having the courage to come forward, at risk of
great personal embarrassment and ridicule, to stand in the gap for others unable to raise their
voices. She is exposing the ugly exploitation of women by FDA’s regulatory scheme that violates
the federal Comstock Act. As citizens of the United States, Rosalie, and other Louisiana citizens
similarly situated, need the Comstock Act to be enforced for her and for their protection. The state
protections are rendered impotent by the FDA’s 2023 REMS and the FDA’s blatant violation of
the Comstock Act by allowing the distribution of abortion-producing drugs through the mail and
common carrier into its borders.
Amici strongly support the right of Rosalie to seek redress for her injuries and bring light
to the injuries of the many women like Amici Women Injured by Abortion. This case is different
4
from FDA v. All. for Hippocratic Med., 602 U.S. 367 (2024) (a/k/a Alliance III). Respondents
such as Rosalie who are often forced by abusive partners to have an abortion, may still fear for
their lives and their safety from abusive males. Rosalie has been forced into experiencing the
drugs. Unlike the plaintiff doctors in Alliance III, supra, none of whom prescribed or used
mifepristone, and who did not allege physical injuries from the FDA’s actions,6 Rosalie does
allege physical injuries as a direct result of FDA’s actions. A man could not legally go online and
buy drugs to kill his baby under the REMS protocol before the 2023 REMS. If Rosalie and
Louisiana are not granted standing, there will be no light shed and no redress or prevention of the
injury to Amici and women like them, chilling the resolve of more injured women to come
forward. As the accounts of Amici demonstrate, women have been traumatized. Coming forward
risks being re-traumatized, particularly when the harm is ignored or minimized or they are
threatened with criminal prosecution.
As this brief will show, women are inadequately informed of the true nature of chemical
abortion and are not provided any follow-up care by on-line abortion pill providers.
#32 Amicus Elizabeth Henschel7: “eating disorders,… suicidal ideations”
“I bled profusely, had severe cramping, nausea, sweating. Bleeding lasted over a month.
I developed PTSD from the trauma of seeing my child. … My partner and staff at the
Planned Parenthood pressured me and lied about the viability of my baby. I did not feel
free to leave…. I still suffer from PTSD following my abortion. I suffered broken
relationships Eating disorders, overwhelming guilt, sadness, and suicidal ideations. …
This medication is dangerous.”
#3 Amicus Kelly Lester: “I felt like I was walking through hell.”
“I had four abortions in my life. My first was at 15-years-old and was a surgical
abortion. I used the abortion pill for my second abortion at 19-years-old because
my first abortion was traumatic. I thought the pill would be easier, less traumatic
6
7
FDA, et al. v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, 602 U.S. 634 (2024).
See Expanded Statement of Women’s Abortion Pill Experience here.
5
on my body, and well, it was cheaper than going the surgical route. . . .
But it wasn’t. It was one of the most horrific experiences of my life. I was told
by the abortion clinic that it wasn’t a big deal, that it was easy and private. I was
in the first trimester, but I don’t remember how far along, probably near the end
of those first 12 weeks . . .
The bleeding and the pain started almost immediately and it was intense. The
pain lasted for two days and I felt like I was in full-blown labor. I was alone, in
one of my bathrooms in my apartment. I was doing drugs just to try to numb the
pain. And in the end, I ultimately broke my lease and moved out because I
couldn’t stand to be in the apartment any longer and experience the trauma again
every time I used the bathroom.
...
I felt like I was walking through hell. Women don’t deserve that.8
#5 Patricia: “Everything the Doctor Told Me Was a Lie . . .I believed I was
dying”:
. . . [A]t home alone with my infant son, I took the abortion pills. Within one
hour I knew that everything the doctor had told me was a lie. I was bleeding
so heavily, I believed I was dying. I was passing clots the size of baseballs, and
I was in the worst physical pain of my life, worse than childbirth . . .. I looked
into the toilet and saw my baby. It had a head, body, and tiny arms and legs. The
shame and guilt . . .I felt . . .as I was forced to flush my aborted baby down the
toilet, is impossible to describe.…
About 3 weeks later, I woke up . . .covered in blood, and still bleeding. I rushed
to the ER . . .my body had not passed all of my former pregnancy. A doctor used
several giant Q-Tip’s to scrape my insides, and I had weekly visits to my
OBGYN….”
https://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/testimonies/testimony.aspx?ID=4202
The FDA has created a process - through mail-order abortion-producing drugs - to avoid
seeing the woman, at all. This reinforces a system of high-volume dispensing of dangerous pills
to women and minor girls in states that have tried to protect them. The black label warning on the
8
I had 4 abortions. The abortion pill was the worst, but women aren't getting the full story
(foxnews.com) by Kelly Lester.
Kelly Lester is Outreach Director for And Then There Were None. Her story is featured on
https://www.littlepillsthatkill.com/.
6
FDA-approved drug identifies this as “possible harm including death.”9 Louisiana and other states
surely have the sovereign right to protect their citizens from this harm.
Applicants have argued that Rosalie lacks standing because it is unlikely that she will be
injured again. To a person unfamiliar with women who have been traumatized by abortion, it might
seem that she could avoid repeating that harm by avoiding that man. However, the evidence from
women hurt by abortion is that many women feel worthless after an abortion, feel unable to cope
with life, attempt suicide or engage in other destructive behaviors. One of those destructive
behaviors is allowing men to abuse them because they feel worthless. See 4,855 Testimonies of
Women Hurt by Abortion at FN 20. It is a sterile analysis which excludes the reality of women like
Rosalie, and denies standing, and certainly there are many, many, many other women in Louisiana
and around the country who are subjected to the risk of coerced abortions.
Louisiana asks for the 2023 REMS to be stayed. Congress has prohibited the use of any
express company or other common carrier or interactive computer service for any drug, medicine,
article, or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, citing 18 U.S.C. Section
1462. Amici support the federal government's legal prohibition on sending abortionprocuring drugs through common carriers or mail, and this Court should require compliance with
the federal law by the FDA.
Amici speak because of the injuries they have incurred through abortion and on behalf of
their unborn children, children who are worthy of protection under the Life Clauses of the Fifth
and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution.10
9
Black Label Warning on FDA Drug:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/6kltlwy7vyibtagucosd3/020687s020lbl_Page_02.jpg?rlkey=jgxi
yfqv2l0pkgbnj3vdivkkn&st=urznqmkm&dl=0
10
Fifth Amendment: “No person shall be deprived of Life. . . without due process of law.” (binds
7
II.
The FDA Acted Arbitrarily and Capriciously By Ignoring the Injury to Women
from Abortion-Producing Drugs
The FDA acted arbitrarily and capriciously by ignoring the harm to women hurt by
abortion-producing drugs, especially by incrementally eroding the protections intended through
REMS for “safe” administration of this drug. These REMS resulted in women actually seeing
their aborted babies and being faced with personally disposing of their child’s remains. Whether
they wanted abortion or not, this is a horror that women did not expect since they were deceptively
told “It’s not a baby.” This action by the FDA is a gateway to exploitation and undeniable,
irreparable injury to women.
Here are more women’s actual drug-induced abortion experiences in their own words.11
Warning: these accounts are raw, graphic and real.12
#1 Amicus Abby Johnson: “ . . . (P)raying that I wouldn’t Die”
“…I started volunteering for Planned Parenthood. . . . Shortly after…I chose a
chemical abortion…I was told by the clinic staff that it would be more
‘natural’… ‘like having a heavy period’. I was given the…pill in the clinic and
[was] told that [it] would ‘stop the pregnancy.’ I was told to insert 800mcg of
federal government) (1791). 14th Amendment: “Nor shall any state deprive any person of Life . .
. without due process of law or be denied the equal protection of law.” (binds state governments)
(1868). The following authors particularly emphasize the Fourteenth Amendment which binds
states. See e.g., Craddock, Joshua J., “Personhood After Dobbs” (May 16, 2025). Catholic U. L.
Rev. 536 (2025); Finnis, J., & George, R. P. Equal Protection And The Unborn Child: A Dobbs
Brief, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, 45(3), 927-1031(2022); Craddock, Joshua J.,
“Protecting Prenatal Persons: Does the Fourteenth Amendment Prohibit Abortion?” Harvard
Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 40, No. 2 (2017); Joseph, Anthony, “The ‘Pennsylvania
Model’: The Judicial Criminalization of Abortion in Pennsylvania, 1838-1850”, The American
Journal of Legal History, July 2007, Vol. 49, No. 3, p. 284-320, Oxford University Press.
11
Link to Expanded Statements of Women’s Abortion Pill Experience:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/whla6w2czqfehommhstqo/2026-Expanded-Statements-ofAmici-LA.pdf?rlkey=iqkbvk64xczbsldpntlucl33e&st=zrjl0ffc&dl=0
12
Part of the women’s statements are in bold for emphasis throughout the brief. That emphasis
has been added. Dobbs allows states such as Louisiana to ban “particularly gruesome and
barbaric” procedures. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215, at 301
(2022) (emphasis added).
8
Misoprostol vaginally 24 hours later. Within 30 minutes…I began to hemorrhage
and pass clots…intense cramping. I had never experienced pain so severe…I
began to vomit…I was passing clots the size of lemons. I…scooped my baby
up…and…wasn’t sure what to do. No one had prepared me for that…It felt
wrong…but…I dropped my child in the toilet, closed my eyes, and flushed.
I hemorrhage[d] for hours…I just laid on my bathroom floor…Blood was
everywhere…I remember falling asleep on the floor and praying that I
wouldn’t die. I bled and passed large clots for eight weeks. The cramps were
debilitating . . .
I went back to volunteer at Planned Parenthood . . .my goal . . .[was] to
convince every chemical abortion patient to have a surgical abortion . . .I didn’t
want any woman to go through what I had gone through . . .”
#2 Katherine: “I thought I was going to die”:
“ . . . I hated myself! [after a prior surgical abortion] . . . Chemical abortion was
my answer . . .a couple of pills and the whole thing will be over. I was given a
pill to take at the clinic and sent home with pills to place internally . . . intense
cramping . . .bleeding . . .large pieces of bloody tissue . . .nausea . . .weakness. I
thought I was going to die there all alone. I was sure I needed medical attention,
but I was so afraid of the exposure . . .”
https://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/testimonies/testimony.aspx?ID=2329
#4 Courtney: “I felt like I aided in the murder of my child…”:
“ . . .I couldn't change my mind . . .it would make the staff mad . . .I was given .
. .RU-486 . . .to take . . .in the clinic. They never told me . . .[it] would . . .starve
my baby to death . . .they just said it would stop my pregnancy and keep my
"embryo" from becoming a baby. They made it seem as safe . . .as taking a
Tylenol. They then gave me a second pill (Cytotec) to take the next day.
They didn't tell me . . .it was to induce strong contractions to expel my baby's
corpse-…just . . .it was necessary to ensure my abortion was successful. I took
the second pill . . ., expecting [what] they had told me.
. . . I experienced very intense, painful cramps as my body expelled my baby. .
.into the toilet…A toilet. I wish . . .I would've . . .buried it.
This abortion was . . .harder…than the surgical abortion . . .I aided in the murder
of my child . . .I was told a pill was "easier and safer" than a surgical abortion;
it's not.”
https://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/testimonies/testimony.aspx?ID=2256
9
#6 Amicus Tracy Reynolds– A Former Phone Worker for an Abortion Recovery Program13
“ . . .(T)here has been an increase in calls for abortion recovery regarding the traumatic effects of
. . .the ‘abortion pill’. These calls often occur in the middle of the night from women who have
taken the ‘abortion pill’ without understanding the effects and with no medical professional’s
supervision.” For example:
#7 From C.: ‘ . . .my tiny baby floating in the toilet bowl. . .’
‘… my husband felt… [it was] too soon after our marriage to have a baby . . .
He strongly pressured me to take the ‘abortion pill’… I did not receive any
information . . .about medical/emotional consequences. It was the most
traumatic experience I’ve ever had, seeing my tiny baby floating in the toilet
bowl . . . followed by excessive bleeding. I still have nightmares and I will
never forget . . . [We] are now trying to conceive but . . . my progesterone levels
were off, which . . .could be an after effect of the abortion pill . . .’
#12 It didn’t seem like it was an abortion since it was a pill. . .
“… a day I will never forgive or forget. I had . . .been anti-abortion but in a
domestic violence relationship . . . It didn’t seem like it was an abortion since
it was a pill. I was delusional . . . My [boyfriend] at the time almost killed me
and my dog . . . He choked my dog . . . He told me that my grandma needed to
take me to Planned Parenthood . . . I started to bleed and went to the ER. The sac
came out and I lost my baby . . . I flushed my baby down the toilet. I am forever
sorry . . . I went down a path of destruction after my abortion. My abortion will
affect me for the rest of my life . . .”
#13 I just died a little bit and I’m not the same person
“I regret my abortion so much… I think about it [every day]. I did it out of fear
because my family disapproved and were not supportive. I . . . was pregnant at
19 and . . . and I got the abortion pill . . . Taking the pill was traumatizing when I
saw my baby in the [sac]. I just died a little bit and I’m not the same person
I was. . . .”
#14 I fainted from the amount of blood lost and had to be carried out
“…I [took] the pill. Everything seemed to [be] normal. I passed the [baby].
I never stopped bleeding. [I thought] it was the abortion followed by my period.
A few weeks [passed] and I [started] losing a lot of blood. And ‘another’ pops
13
Amicus Tracy Reynolds worked for a non-profit that provides hope and healing for those
broken through traumatic events, including abortion.
10
out. The blood clots got larger. I fainted from the amount of blood lost and
had to be carried out of my apartment by my [boyfriend] and our Roommate. I
thought I was going to die. 10-hour ER visit and lots of meds . . . It was the
scariest thing I’ve ever gone through . . .”
#15 I looked in the toilet . . .
“. . . I bled excessively. I looked in the toilet when the baby came out and
ended up throwing up… I regret looking . . . I’ll never get that image out of my
head…”
#16 (1/3/24): I hated myself …
“My partner paid for it . . . I was 1 month [and] . . . 2 ½ weeks [when] I terminated.
I took the pills at the clinic, came home and instantly felt a wave of depression
splash over me. The next day I took the rest and started bleeding instantly. Within
45 min . . . a mandarin sized clot came out. I . . . believed was the embryo . . .
from that moment I hated myself. . .”
#17 (1/08/24): I’m haunted by [my baby’s] eyes …
“I’ve recently had my abortion . . . It’s painful and brings up all sorts of emotions
. . . [I]t is indeed traumatizing . . . I feel guilt and sadness of what could’ve been,
because I [saw] [its] eyes before I flushed it away . . . No one prepared me for this
. . . [Every day] I burst into bouts of tears because it was my baby, but I
couldn’t undo it . . . I’m haunted by [its] eyes. . .”
#18 (1/24/24): I ended up having nonstop gushing blood.
“… I had a medical [chemical] abortion and it was traumatic. I got very sick,
couldn’t stop throwing up and was out of commission for days. I was told to take
another dose as I may be sick because I didn’t get rid of everything I was supposed
to. [After] that second dose the sickness went away but I ended up having nonstop
gushing blood [and went to] the emergency room. . .”
#19 (2/1/24): they proceeded to scrape my womb repeatedly
“I was supposed to be admitted and monitored . . .but they decided otherwise,
they gave me an oral pill and inserted another vaginally and I was sent home and
told to wait for the whole procedure to be completed . . . [T]he wors[t] pains of
my life, got super sick and the fetus ended up coming out but there were residual
products. I went back to the hospital told the Dr.’s . . . that I felt like there was
still something in my womb . . .[They] did an ultrasound and . . .there was . . .and
they decided . . .they would clean my womb . . . [T]hose two Dr.’s gave me a pain
injection because I’d feel some “mild discomfort”. . . [T]hey proceeded to
scrape my womb repeatedly . . . each scrape being rougher [than] the previous,
I could feel myself get numb from the pain from my waist down to my legs . I
pleaded with them to stop . . .they just continued to scrape and scrape and
11
scrape . . . [At] some point I felt like I was about to pass out . . . I was screaming
and pleading with them to stop.”
#20 (2/1/24): I was on the shower floor SCREAMING. . .
“Mine was so bad I was on the shower floor SCREAMING, throwing up,
bleeding everywhere, the pain was unbearable and unimaginable . . .and I have
had brain surgery!!! . . . NOBODY prepared me for the HUGE amount of blood
and chunks, the intense excruciating pain, the nausea . . .”
#21 (1/31/24): the most pain I have ever been in, in my life
“. . . I laid there for about an hour . . .suddenly I shot awake with a sharp cramp .
. . I was in the most pain I have ever been in, in my life. The cramps were
nothing like I ever . . . expected. I was . . .writhing in pain with a heating pad
that did . . .nothing . . .I . . . was screaming into my pillow . . . [O]nce I started
[bleeding] it came in floods…”
#22 (01/31/24): It’s just sitting in my bathroom…
“I took my second pills . . . & this little sac came out of me . . . I’ve been crying
ever since. My husband is asking if I want to bury it & it’s just sitting in my
bathroom until I make up my mind. I feel VERY overwhelmed. . .”
#23 (2/8/24): . . . I can’t cope and can’t live with myself after what I have
done.
“I’m 18 and . . . just had my abortion. I passed my baby today and my heart
broke. I have a one-year-old son . . . I absolutely HATE myself for this and I
honestly feel like I can’t cope and can’t live with myself after what I have
done.”
#24 (2/8/24): . . . I had to catch my baby and pull it out of my body . . .
“ . . . only on day 5-6 of life after losing my baby due to . . .abortion . . . I’m . .
.find[ing] it hard to even look my little boy . . . (he’s 12 months old). I have to
keep [going] to the car to sit . . .and cry. I had to catch my baby and pull it out
of my body . . . I wrapped my poor angel in tissue and have kept it ever since
. . . and yes, I will get rid of it soon. I’m only 18 and I’m completely and utterly
traumatized . . . I regret my decision . . . I can’t live with myself any longer, I
can’t cope with it any longer and I just don’t know what to do. Everything hurts
far too much to [bear].”
Excluding effects such as these in the FDA practice, warnings and labeling is arbitrary,
capricious and misleading, and irreparably injures women.
12
#26 From Amicus Stephanie – Phone coach for helpline14
‘…the cat had eaten the baby’
“… helpline is a 24-hour, 7-day a week, 365 days a year helpline.”
“A caller had a chemical abortion the day prior . . .the baby [is] in front of her on
the counter and, ‘it has hands and feet and toes and fingers and eyes and she
cannot flush the baby down the toilet…’ . . .Her father told her to call somebody
. . .she called Helpline. She . . .struggles with depression . . .[and] cannot imagine
just throwing the baby in the trash or down the toilet . . .”
“. . . she was broken up and crying . . .wrapping the baby up and storing the baby
in the freezer until . . .the ground thawed [enough] to bury the baby.
. . . (S)he began to scream . . .she felt like she was going to faint . . .she laid her
baby on the counter while we were talking and when she turned around the cat
had eaten the baby. She was crying hysterically . . .”15
It is dangerous, arbitrary and capricious for the FDA to dehumanize this “infant life” at
the time of abortion, as recognized in Gonzales, 550 U.S. 124, at 159, and force the woman to
view the baby’s corpse in her own home. This type of irreparable harm heavily weighs the
balance of harm in favor of enjoining the abortion-producing drug, as required by the
evidence and the Comstock Act. 18 U.S.C. § 1461. In weighing the harms, surgical abortions
would still be available in states where abortion is legal.
#27 Amicus Yolanda has been a volunteer coach for another helpline for women hurt by
abortion for a little over a year and a half. She had over 282 contacts from different people . . .
in the form of texts and phone calls.
The following are situations from Yolanda:
String still attached
A woman called… at 1a.m. She took… mifepristone and - she was holding the
fetus in her hand, but the "string" was still attached and she didn't know what
to do with it.
14
Amicus Stephanie is a volunteer phone coach for a helpline for people who need help after
abortion. Stephanie has handled over 900 calls.
15
Quoted from Amicus Stephanie’s email to counsel.
13
Parents down the hall
A young girl called who took mifepristone and was in the process of having her
abortion in her bedroom and wanted someone to talk to. She was scared and didn't
know what to expect. I asked her if she had any support from her parents. They
were in the other room and didn't know what she was doing.
15-year-old niece buried her baby, dug up, re-buried, dug up again . . . where to
bury the baby?
A woman was calling for her 15-year-old niece who was sobbing in the
background. She had buried, dug up and reburied her aborted baby. No one could
calm her down. After the baby was aborted, she put it in a small box and buried
it in a high traffic area in their yard. So she dug it up and reburied it again.
She was told to move it because there was a problem with where she buried him
the second time. This 15-year-old now has a graveyard in her backyard.”16
The FDA fails to account for dead babies in toilets and backyards. No other drug produces
human remains for disposal by lay individuals.
III. Abortion Pills Increase the Risk and Frequency of Injury Through Coerced or Forced
Abortion
No direct supervision by a licensed medical physician, along with mail and common carrier
delivery, increases the likelihood of women like Respondent Rosalie suffering this irreparable
harm. These factors, combined, expand the number of unduly pressured, coerced or forced
abortions. For example, an attorney from Houston plead guilty to assault of his wife for his
attempts to cause her to abort their baby by putting an abortion-inducing drug in her water.17
Here are more examples of forced or unduly pressured abortions more fully described in
FN 7:
#28 “… my boyfriend and my parents insisted . . .”
16
Quoted from Amicus Yolanda’s email to counsel.
Adam Zuvanich, Houston Public Media | Posted on February 8, 2024, 3:03 PM (Last Updated:
February 9, 2024, 5:21 PM):
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/court/2024/02/08/476976/houston-attorneyaccused-of-slipping-abortion-drugs-into-pregnant-wifes-drinks-pleads-guilty-sentenced-to-jail/
17
14
‘ . . . my boyfriend and parents insisted . . .I was too young and I should have
an abortion. I live … where abortion is . . .illegal, so my boyfriend took me to
New Mexico . . . I paid $900 for a chemical abortion. When I returned . . .I was
in severe pain and started bleeding profusely. I was afraid to go to the ER . . .
because abortion is illegal . . . I called the helpline and they … [said] I needed to
go to the ER.’
#29 “ . . .my boyfriend strongly pressured me . . .”
‘ . . . my boyfriend strongly pressured me to have an abortion . . . [It] was too
soon in our relationship . . . He suggested . . .the abortion pill, …a website …
made it sound very easy and ‘just like taking a Tylenol’. It was the most horrific
experience I’ve ever been through . . .no information given about what I would
experience . . .and that I would . . .expel the baby. I bled excessively and for
weeks had nightmares…’18
#30
Boyfriend giving RU-486 pills because they had unprotected
sex
One man was calling for his girlfriend who had had a chemical abortion
using…RU-486…a few months before and since they had unprotected sex,
started giving her more of the pills…19
#31: “ . . .he said he would kill me and my oldest child.”
“ . . . I was forced to have an abortion . . . He said he would kill me . . . He
threatened if I didn’t get rid of it he would kill me and my oldest child . . . he said
he would find us and kill us. He would punch me in the stomach hard as he could
to try to miscarry the baby. I finally agreed . . . He wouldn’t stop threatening
my life [and] my other child. [If it] was just me, I would have run away . . . but
he threatened not only my life but my one-year-old as well.
. . . I was alone and scared . . .I wanted to tell them I was being forced but I
was [too] scared [that] he would come after me.
. . . I was alone the entire process. My cramps got so intense I found myself on
the bathroom floor. I made it to the toilet. . . I dissociate from it a lot. I have had
2 or 3 miscarriages after . . .”
Without requiring physician supervision, and by ignoring the Constitution and the
Comstock Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1461, the FDA does not adequately perform its function to protect
the public, particularly women and minor girls, from unduly pressured, coerced, or forced
18
19
Quoted from Amicus Tracy’s email to counsel.
From Amicus Yolanda contact.
15
abortions. Of the 4,855 Operation Outcry testimonies of Women Injured by Abortion, over
2,000 say they were pressured by someone else into having an abortion.20 Rosalie is not alone.
Coerced abortion is a common problem throughout the United States, and the FDA’s changes to
the REMS protocol directly increases the risk of forced or coerced abortions.
One Texas mother has already been arrested for forcing her child to take an abortion
pill. 21 These events will be much more frequent if the FDA’s REMS protocol, in its current
form, remains operative. In weighing the benefit to the public, stopping this abuse is a far greater
benefit to women and minor girls and prevents irreparable harm.
IV. Violating the Constitution, The Comstock Act and Balancing the Harms
A. Why the Constitution Matters
Protecting life is the legal and Constitutional duty of federal and state governments, and
judges. Under the Fifth Amendment, human life from our founding was protected at the federal
level, first, through the federal common law, which made abortion a common law crime, see
Wilson quote infra, and then through the Comstock Act, enacted shortly after the Fourteenth
Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 imposed a similar Constitutional duty to protect
life on the states and stated:
“Nor shall any state deprive any person of life . . . without due
process of law, nor the equal protection thereof.”
A founding signer of the Declaration, the Constitution, and a George Washington appointee to the
U.S. Supreme Court, - James Wilson, - stated:
“With consistency, beautiful and undeviating, human life, from its commencement
20
4,855 Testimonies of Women Hurt By Abortion:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/bkcpx3jz1rt37r9xxnauf/AAl1Qpq5TBqkMQoCt8jPWWA?rlke
y=ttpql7nn114xfocu835o9wr0n&st=wgz0o8cv&dl=0
21
As reported by ABC13, MSN 2/8/24: https://www.lmtonline.com/local/article/laredo-policewoman-tried-forcing-teen-daughter-17880448.php
16
to its close, is protected by the common law. In the contemplation of law, life begins
when the infant is first able to stir in the womb. By the law, life is protected not only
from immediate destruction, but from every degree of actual violence, and in some
cases, from every degree of danger.” Vol. II, Part II, Chapter XII: “Of Natural
Rights of Individuals.
This was the law of America for 200 years (from the 1770s to 1973) until the erroneous
and now repudiated decision in Roe v. Wade erroneously purported to create a right to abortion,
reversed in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022). Dobbs stated:
Until the latter part of the 20th Century, such a right was entirely unknown
in America law. Indeed, when the 14th Amendment was adopted, three
quarters of the States made abortion a crime at all stages of pregnancy.
The abortion right is also critically different from any other right that this
Court has held to fall within the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection
“liberty.” Roe’s defenders characterize the abortion right as similar to the
rights recognized in past decisions involving matters such as intimate
sexual relations, contraception, and marriage, but abortion is
fundamentally different, as both Roe and Casey acknowledged, because
it destroys what those decisions call “fetal life” and what the law now
before us describes as an “unborn human being.” Id, at 2243.
Another major founder, John Witherspoon stated, in his Lectures on Moral Philosophy
delivered at what is now Princeton University that:
“[in America] we have denied the power of life and death to parents.”
(Lectures on Moral Philosophy).
Legal abortion creates a problem because abortion is incompatible with the tenets
of the Constitution. Indeed, the Constitution forbids it, which is why Congress passed the
Comstock Act to prohibit abortifacients – the killing of a human “life” – through the U.S.
Postal Service and interstate commerce, its areas of federal responsibility at the time.
James Kent, an early American jurist and legal scholar, echoed common-law and
statutory principles regarding the legal status of children in the womb:
“Wherever such consideration would be for his benefit, a child en ventre sa mere
(in the mother’s womb) is considered as absolutely born.”
17
Kent, James, Commentaries on American Law. 4 vols. New York: O. Halsted,
1826-1830.
There is a reason the Comstock Act was passed. It is the only federal law directly
expressing Congress’s view on abortion pills and explicitly criminalizes the mailing or delivery of
drugs “for producing abortion” 18 U.S.C. § 1461. An abortion-producing drug is not medicine
according to Congress; it destroys human life. The FDA’s 2023 REMS, in effect, invites and even
sanctions, law violators bringing abortion within the borders of states who have protections in
place for their women, minor girls and babies. This is an improper usurpation of the state’s
sovereign powers.
B. Women Suffer Other Harm, Including the Required Personal Disposal of Human
Remains
#8 From Amicus Serena, Founder - She Found His Grace (SFHG).22 Serena runs a hotline and
has other forms of ministry which enables abortion-wounded women to seek help . . . “Women
who take the abortion pill contact us pretty quickly because of seeing their babies and because of
the medical trauma they are too embarrassed to talk to anyone about.” Following are some of the
contacts received by Serena’s group.
#9 My 9-week unborn child sits in my freezer
“I took the first pill . . . I felt my baby pass… I bled so much that I passed out.
Nobody prepared me for the amount of blood I lost. I ended up in the ER. I
spent hours there . . .
I felt like I murdered my child… I have so much hate in my heart.
My 9-week unborn child sits in my freezer. I’m trying to find the strength to bury
her…”
#10 I couldn’t bear to flush my baby down the toilet . . .
“…I took the pills… After being in a lot of pain for over 24 hours . . .I went to
the ER . . .to see if I could change my mind… I was told my uterus was empty. I
. . . went home…I…[felt] a big clot drop, then came a tiny perfectly formed 1022
She Found His Grace, https://www.shefoundhisgrace.org.
18
week baby and I lost it. I couldn’t bear to flush my baby down the toilet so I
got him out and washed him off. I was frozen in guilt, shame, and regret. I plan
to bury him behind my house . . .”
#11: I got sick with a bad case of sepsis and almost lost my life. . .
“…I walked around for a month with my dead babies inside of me… I took
another dose of abortion pills and . . . I was in pain and bleeding but nothing came
out. I was walking around a whole week in pain before I got sick with a bad
case of sepsis and almost lost my life.
Proper balancing of the harms, the public interest and equity require the Court to conclude
that a stay at this point will save “infant lives,” per Gonzales, at 159, and multitudes of women
from irreparable injury. On the other hand, no woman in any state where abortion is legal will be
denied an abortion because surgical abortion is still available and legal in all those states. The
abortionists have, for years, claimed, and continue to claim, that surgical abortions are safe.
C. Safe Haven Law Alternative
In addition, no woman in America has to parent a child if she does not want to do so. The
Safe Haven laws in all 50 states eliminate the burden of parenting. See Dobbs, 597 U.S., at 259
n.45 (referencing Safe Haven laws). The Supreme Court established, as a matter of law, that it is
reasonable for states, and by inference judges weighing equitable balances, to consider Safe Haven
as an alternative solution to the problem of unwanted children. It is arbitrary and capricious for the
FDA to fail to consider this alternative. It is appropriate for this Court to do so when weighing
risks and benefits. This Court should consider Safe Haven laws when weighing the harms under
the stay standard.
Safe Haven Laws in all fifty states eliminate the burden of unwanted children without
killing the child. These laws avert all abortion-related trauma, the kinds of trauma Amici Women
Injured by Abortion have described in horrifying detail. Throughout the history of the United
19
States, most states made abortion a crime. See Dobbs supra at Appendix A, discussing criminal
abortion laws around the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. States have rational “legitimate
interests” in such laws. Dobbs states:
“These legitimate interests include respect for and preservation of prenatal life at
all stages of development; the protection of maternal health and safety; the
elimination of particularly gruesome or barbaric medical procedures; the
preservation of the integrity of the medical profession; the mitigation of fetal pain;
and the prevention of discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or disability.”
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 142 S. Ct. 2228, 2284 (2022) p. (internal
citation omitted emphasis added).
As indicated by this Court, abortion pills are “particularly gruesome or barbaric.”
The Supreme Court has stated “. . . it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women
come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained. See Brief for
Sandra Cano, et al [180 Women Hurt By Abortion] as Amici Curiae in No. 05-380, pp. 22-24.
Severe depression and loss of esteem can follow.” Gonzales v. Carhart 550 U.S. 124, at 159 (2007).
Conclusion
Considering the FDA-approved drug-induced abortion regimen any type of lawful
regulatory program is a fallacy. It is not safe. It ignores harm to women, as Amici Women Injured
By Abortion demonstrate. The FDA acted arbitrarily and capriciously by bringing the drug to
market, by lessening safety restrictions (including the 2023 REMS), and keeping it on the market,
available through the mail and common carrier, without supervision by a doctor. Louisiana has
enacted laws specifically designed to protect both the mother and the baby. The FDA’s actions
are fruit of the poisonous tree of Roe, which has been reversed.23
The FDA has run roughshod over the sovereign authority of Louisiana to determine what
is and is not acceptable within its borders, resulting in injuries like those of Rosalie. Do not look
23
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 142 S. Ct. 2228, 2284 (2022)
20
away from the over-reach of the FDA. Look at this reality – the FDA’s actions – directly. Don’t
shrink back. If this Court does not step in and exercise its proper authority, solidifying the role
of Louisiana within its own territories, and preventing irreparable harm to women the FDA has
ignored, Louisiana may as well be annexed to a state that makes a different choice. The eroding
of Louisiana’s laws essentially robs that state of its powers and treats its citizens just like those
in California or New York in an area of fundamental importance.
Prayer
This Court should:
a) Find the State of Louisiana and Rosalie have standing to bring this action;
b) Find there is a likelihood Respondents will prevail on the merits;
c) Uphold the stay issued by the Fifth Circuit;
Respectfully submitted this 7th day of May, in the Year of Our Lord, Two Thousand
Twenty-Six, and of The Independence of the United States of America, The Two Hundred Fiftieth
Anniversary.
/s/ Mary J. Browning
Mary J. Browning
mbrowning@thejusticefoundation.org
Counsel of Record for Amici
Allan E. Parker
aparker@thejusticefoundation.org
Counsel for Amici
R. Clayton Trotter
info@thejusticefoundation.org
Counsel for Amici
The Justice Foundation
8023 Vantage Dr., Suite 1275
San Antonio, TX 78230
(210) 614-7157 Fax: (210) 614-6656
T. HOUSTON MIDDLETON, IV
Counsel For Amici
hmiddleton@lundyllp.com
21
HUNTER W. LUNDY
hlundy@lundyllp.com
LUNDY, L.L.P.
501 Broad Street
Lake Charles, LA 70601
22
This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.