North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, is refusing to defend the state’s restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone in court. Stein and the state Department of Justice are instead backing a plaintiff who is challenging the state laws.
North Carolina law requires a 72-hour waiting period before patients can pursue an abortion and requires physicians to explain the risks of an abortion and provide the mother with gestational information about the unborn child. In some circumstances, an ultrasound may also be required.
Amy Bryant, a physician who prescribes the drug, filed a federal lawsuit in January seeking to overturn North Carolina laws restricting when mifepristone can be prescribed. Bryant is arguing that the state laws “interfere with her ability to provide medical care to her patients according to her best medical judgment.” The lawsuit argues that Congress gave to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the right to regulate drugs such as mifepristone, and that federal law preempts state law where it relates to regulating abortion drugs….