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GenBioPro Inc said it was voluntarily dismissing its case in a
filing in federal court in Jackson. The company had argued that
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.
"We are pleased to have again successfully defended
Mississippi's abortion laws," Mississippi Attorney General Lynn
Fitch said in a statement.
Mississippi in 2007 passed a "trigger law" that would ban
abortion with only narrow exceptions in the event that the U.S.
Supreme Court overturned 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 ban or 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 that the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration's approval of mifepristone effectively shielded
the drug from the new ban.
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.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Leslie
Adler and Stephen Coates)
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