Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey on Wednesday accused Planned Parenthood Federation of America in a new lawsuit of misleading business practices in its promotion of the chemical abortion pill mifepristone.
The central claim of the lawsuit filed in Missouri state court is that supporters of abortion access have engaged in deception by claiming that mifepristone is safer than Tylenol and other common medications, a point that is highlighted on Planned Parenthood’s national website, according to the lawsuit.
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Bailey is seeking $1.8 million in civil penalties for the “daily violations” of Missouri’s false advertising statutes as well as up to $1,000 in damages or restitution for every Missouri woman who has been prescribed mifepristone from a Planned Parenthood provider since 2020.
“The national Planned Parenthood organization is actively endangering the lives of women and girls across the country by spreading lies and disinformation about the powerful chemical abortion drug,” Bailey said in a press statement.
Lawsuit documents lay out the case that Planned Parenthood not only makes false claims about the safety of mifepristone abortion but “expressly solicits Missourians” through its interactive website to find abortion providers willing to prescribe the medication and “it uses false information to induce women to make those appointments.”
“This is a blatant violation of Missouri law, and I will not allow a death factory to lie to Missouri women in pursuit of its radical agenda,” Bailey said.
PPFA did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on the allegations from Bailey’s office.
The lawsuit documents claim that 4.6% of women who undergo a medication abortion end up in the emergency room, but the statistic does not have a corresponding citation.
A comprehensive real-world data review of mifepristone was conducted by the anti-abortion Ethics and Public Policy Center in April, which found that more than 1 in 10 patients experience at least one serious adverse event following a mifepristone abortion, including sepsis, infection, or hemorrhaging.
The anti-abortion research group Charlotte Lozier Institute also recently published a peer-reviewed article concluding that it is improper to compare mifepristone and other medications, such as Tylenol.
Bailey’s lawsuit is an escalation in the legal conflict between Planned Parenthood and the Show Me State after Missouri voters assented to an abortion rights constitutional amendment in the November 2024 election.
The amendment allows for legal abortion up until fetal viability, which is often considered to be approximately 21 weeks of pregnancy.
In March, Bailey expressed his intent to serve Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which operates in Missouri, with a cease and desist order that would prohibit the abortion provider from promoting or performing chemical abortions within the state.
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers filed a lawsuit against Bailey in April, claiming that the threat of the cease and desist order violated the new constitutional amendment. That lawsuit is ongoing.
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In May, Republican lawmakers in Missouri approved a new referendum measure that would ask voters to consider whether to repeal the recently passed abortion rights amendment and instead ban abortions after 12 weeks of gestation, except in the cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
That referendum is slated to go to Missouri voters in November 2026 unless Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe calls for a special election before then.