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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told Fox News Digital on Friday it is “blatantly false” to claim that a popular abortion-inducing drug now under federal review is “safer than Tylenol,” launching a multimillion-dollar lawsuit and citing RICO statutes.
Mifepristone, a pharmaceutical that blocks pregnancy hormone progesterone, is often utilized as part of a two-drug process that critics call a “chemical abortion.” About 24 hours after mifepristone is taken, the pregnant woman will take misoprostol – which induces uterine contractions and allows for the likely deceased fetus to be pushed out.
Current FDA approval allows for mifepristone to be prescribed within 10 weeks of conception, though now the State of Florida and FDA chief Dr. Marty Makary are separately scrutinizing the safety of the drug.
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Uthmeier said there is mounting evidence of adverse health consequences to women who take mifepristone – and that studies have shown an average of more than one death per year this century have been ascribed to complications from it.
The $350 million figure is calculated to allow for statutory damages of $10,000 per affected Floridian in 35,000 cases, as the attorney general balked in court filings at the idea a common pain reliever – recently under federal scrutiny itself — could be compared to such “chemical abortions.”
“Planned Parenthood sells profitable abortions to vulnerable women by lying to them about abortion pills being safer than Tylenol,” Uthmeier wrote in the filing.
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“The ‘safer than Tylenol’ marketing campaign has been ongoing for years and targeted to women in Florida. Just a few weeks ago, Defendant Planned Parenthood Florida Action proclaimed on X.com that ‘Mifepristone is safe. Safer than Tylenol.’ — That claim is manifestly false.”
Tylenol, a commercial name for acetaminophen pills marketed by Summit, N.J.-based Kenvue Pharmaceuticals, is widely regarded as a ubiquitous drug but is also not without its controversies.
A spat between the Trump administration and Kenvue – a spinoff of the more-recognized Johnson & Johnson – over whether the headache reliever causes autism, and there had been a scandal in the 1980s wherein capsules marketed in Illinois had been adulterated with cyanide and killed several people.
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Florida claimed Planned Parenthood knows their Tylenol-mifepristone claims are “false” and “badly misleads women… about the safety and risks of chemical abortion.”
“Use of chemical abortion drugs routinely lands women in the emergency room with hemorrhaging and other serious complications,” the state said.
Uthmeier’s suit cited a recent analysis finding that about 10% of women who underwent a “chemical abortion” went septic or suffered similar life-threatening side effects within 45 days.
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The suit alleged that Planned Parenthood appears to prefer chemical abortions to surgical ones because they are more “profitable.”
“Business is booming for Planned Parenthood. Its most recent annual report lists over $2 billion in revenue and $3.1 billion in assets,” the suit said.
“The secret to the organization’s recent success is a top-down strategy of decreasing unprofitable health services and increasing profitable abortions,” it added, citing comparative statistics on other services like cancer screenings from 2013 and 2023.
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The suit also accused Planned Parenthood of violating RICO statutes – typically reserved for organized crime and mob syndicates.
The state asked the court to declare Planned Parenthood’s repeated advertisements touting mifepristone’s safety as a “pattern of racketeering activity.”
Both Planned Parenthood’s national and Sunshine State arms fired back at Uthmeier and Tallahassee in statements to Fox News Digital.
“Once again, for the lawmakers in Florida: Mifepristone is safe and effective, and has been used by more than 7.5 million people for abortion and miscarriage care in the U.S. since its approval more than two decades ago,” said Susan Baker Manning, general counsel for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
“See you in court,” Baker Manning said.
Alexandra Mandado, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Florida, added that her group “proudly offers patients medically accurate and comprehensive information” along with their care.
“[T]his politically motivated attack won’t change that.”
In response to Trump administration claims about Tylenol, Kenvue said at the time that “sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism.”
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