GenBioPro, a leading manufacturer of abortion medication, is preparing to go to battle with the Trump administration.
The country’s largest manufacturer of abortion pills is wading into the first major legal battle over abortion of President Trump’s second term.
The company, GenBioPro, on Tuesday asked a Texas court to add it to the list of defendants in a lawsuit filed in October by three Republican state attorneys general. The move was a significant offensive action on an issue seen as a vanguard in the fight over access to abortion.
The lawsuit was filed by the state attorneys general from Missouri, Idaho and Kansas, and asks a federal court to reverse a series of Food and Drug Administration regulations that have greatly expanded access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department defended the agency’s rules and F.D.A.’s approval of the medication 25 years ago. But many abortion rights advocates anticipate that the Trump administration will decline to defend the agency, effectively siding with the state attorneys general and using the case to limit access.
If the judge grants GenBioPro’s request, the maneuver will allow the company to lead the defense of mifepristone. The company is being represented by Democracy Forward, a legal nonprofit that has filed more than a dozen lawsuits and won multiple court orders against the Trump administration.
“The foundation of these extreme politicians’ arguments are purely political, rather than based in scientific evidence,” said Skye Perryman, the president and chief executive of Democracy Forward. “The threat this case brings to abortion access nationwide cannot be understated.”