[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: OH atty general files appeal on mifepristone law in wrong court

[PFLI PharmAid Center]

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 25 Apr 2008 AD
*
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/04/24/ohno_CE_abortionpill_0424.ART_ART_04-24-08_B3_5OA11OC.html?sid=101

2004 law to control [mifepristone] RU-486
*Dann takes up abortion-pill fight [in wrong court]
*
Thursday,  April 24, 2008 2:58 AM
By Dan Horn <mailto:dhorn at enquirer.com>
THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER

The Ohio attorney general's office tried again yesterday to save a state 
law that restricts the use of a pill that induces abortion.

The law was supposed to take effect in 2004, but it has been tied up in 
federal court for four years and has never been enforced.

Lawyers for Attorney General Marc Dann asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court 
of Appeals yesterday to overturn a lower court's ruling that the law was 
vague and, therefore, unconstitutional.

Planned Parenthood, which sued to block enforcement of the law, contends 
that the law is so confusing and unclear that doctors could face 
criminal charges for acts they did not know were illegal.

The state's interpretation of the law "would subject physicians to 
potentially limitless requirements," Planned Parenthood's attorneys argued.

The law would make it illegal for doctors to prescribe the pill, known 
as RU-486, after the seventh week of pregnancy, as recommended by the 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1999.

The problem, according to Planned Parenthood, is that the law refers to 
an FDA approval letter, as well as 90 other documents related to the use 
of [mifepristone] RU-486.

Mimi Liu, Planned Parenthood's attorney, told the judges yesterday that 
the regulations make it impossible for doctors to know what activity 
might run afoul of the law.

Anne Berry Strait, an assistant attorney general, said Planned 
Parenthood opposes the law because it does not like it, not because it's 
confusing.

"Planned Parenthood and its physicians understand exactly what the act 
does and means," the state's attorneys wrote in a brief defending the law.

The three judges questioned whether the law even belonged in federal 
court, suggesting that the Ohio Supreme Court might be a more 
appropriate venue.

They were asked to consider the case after U.S. District Judge Susan J. 
Dlott ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood and barred enforcement of the 
law. the panel's decision is expected this year.

dhorn at enquirer.com <mailto:dhorn at enquirer.com>


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