Attorney General Josh Stein has informed the North Carolina General Assembly of his conclusion that Chapel Hill OB-GYN Dr. Amy Bryant's preemption argument in Bryant v. Stein is legally correct, according to Stein's Press Secretary Nazneen Ahmed.
In January, Bryant filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the Middle District of North Carolina that challenged state restrictions on the abortion medication mifepristone.
In the complaint, she claimed the restrictions impose "unnecessary costs" and "interfere" with her work as a physician.
In a letter obtained by The Daily Tar Heel, Stein wrote to NCGA leaders that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has determined restrictions such as the ones imposed under North Carolina state law would "unduly burden patients' access to a safe and effective drug."
Stein added that, if the president pro tempore of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives decide to intervene in the case, the Department of Justice will cooperate.
"Health care decisions — including those involving reproductive health — should be made by patients and their providers, not politicians," Stein said in an email statement. "The state of North Carolina's restriction of women’s use of the prescriptions they need to exercise their reproductive freedoms violates federal law and the Constitution.”
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