Attorney General Phil Weiser petitions FDA to remove burdensome restrictions on mifepristone

August 20, 2025 (DENVER) – Attorney General Phil Weiser and a coalition of 17 other attorneys general are requesting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration remove burdensome restrictions on mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions, the most common means of abortion in the U.S.

The coalition today submitted a filing presenting extensive evidence that the safety and efficacy of medication abortion are well established by hundreds of scientific studies, and more than 7.5 million women in the U.S. have safely used mifepristone for abortion care or miscarriage management. The attorneys general urge the agency to eliminate unnecessary restrictions on this safe medication that make it much harder for patients to access medication abortions, particularly in rural and medically underserved areas.

“I will continue to do everything in my power to protect abortion rights and access to reproductive health care in the face of grave threats to reproductive freedoms,” Attorney General Weiser said. “Anyone seeking medication abortions and effective treatment of miscarriages deserves to get the care they need without the federal government creating unnecessary and dangerous barriers to medicine that research has shown to be safe and effective.”

In response to political pressure to restrict medication abortion, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a Senate committee in May that he had ordered the FDA to conduct a “complete review” of mifepristone. Since receiving FDA approval in 2000, the combination of mifepristone and misoprostol has been the only FDA-approved regimen to end an early pregnancy.

While Coloradans voted by a wide margin to add reproductive freedoms to the state constitution last year, threats to abortion access at the federal level continue to pose dangers to those seeking abortion care.

The FDA has set restrictions on the drug not warranted by its long and well-documented history of safety. The FDA requirements for mifepristone unduly burden patient access by, among other things:

  • Requiring providers to become a registered prescriber of mifepristone
  • Requiring pharmacies to obtain special certification to dispense mifepristone
  • Requiring patients to sign a form agreeing that they are voluntarily terminating their pregnancy before they can receive a mifepristone prescription

These extra and unnecessary requirements, which apply to almost no other drugs the FDA regulates, discourage medical professionals from providing medication abortion when they already have the appropriate training to administer the drug.

In today’s filing, Attorney General Weiser and the coalition request that the FDA either end the unnecessary and burdensome restrictions altogether, or stop enforcing the requirements in their states because the states already have robust regulatory schemes to ensure patient safety.

Read the citizen petition filed today with the FDA (PDF).

Joining Attorney General Weiser in submitting the petition to the FDA are the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, the District of Columbia, Washington, and the governor of Pennsylvania.

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Media Contact:
Lawrence Pacheco
Chief Communications Officer
(720) 508-6553 office
lawrence.pacheco@coag.gov