Wagner Center Joins Amicus Brief Affirming the States’ Duty to Protect Life

This week, the Wagner Center joined Advancing American Freedom (AAF) and like-minded advocates in filing an amicus curiae brief in Missouri v. FDA—a case that presents profound questions about the rule of law, the proper limits of federal authority, and the government’s obligation to protect innocent human life.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal government used the crisis as a pretext to relax longstanding safety protocols governing mifepristone, a chemical abortion drug. Among other changes, the Food and Drug Administration removed the in-person physician requirement, thereby facilitating the widespread distribution of abortion-inducing drugs, including their unlawful shipment into states that have enacted laws to protect life. Missouri, Louisiana, and other states have rightly challenged these actions, asserting their sovereign authority, and indeed their moral responsibility, to safeguard both women and the unborn. As AAF General Counsel J. Marc Wheat observed, “States’ pro-life laws protect both women and the unborn from the dangers of abortion. The abortionists’ campaign to undermine these laws would not have been possible had the FDA not abandoned the in-person dispensing requirement.”

At its core, this case is both constitutional and moral. It implicates the Tenth Amendment’s reservation of powers to the states and raises fundamental questions about whether federal agencies may, by regulatory fiat, nullify duly enacted state laws designed to protect life.

In joining this amicus brief, Professor Wagner stands with other pro-life leaders in urging the court to uphold the integrity of state authority, to ensure the protection of women’s health, and—most importantly—to affirm the inherent dignity and sanctity of every human life, including the unborn.