As we approach the fourth anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the landmark ruling that overturned 1973’s Roe v. Wade and restored to the states their constitutional authority to protect unborn children, the mifepristone litigation in Louisiana v. FDA continues. On May 14, the Supreme Court stayed the Fifth Circuit’s order, preserving the Food and Drug Administration’s current rules for tele-abortion prescriptions and mail-order distribution of the abortion pill while the case returns to the lower courts for full briefing and argument. Yet beyond the disputes over procedure, drug safety, and federalism, the case reveals something deeper and more disturbing: the persistent erasure of the unborn child from American law, policy, and imagination.
For Louisiana, the central issue has never been technical. Post-Dobbs, the state possesses both the constitutional authority and the moral obligation to protect a human life from the very beginning of his or her biological existence. The Human Life Protection Act forbids the administration, prescription, or sale of any drug with the specific intent of ending the life of an unborn human being. The statute is explicit: “every unborn child is a human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person.”
The Fifth Circuit rightly acknowledged this sovereign policy interest. It observed that the FDA’s 2023 Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy modifications undermine Louisiana’s laws and facilitate approximately 1,000 illegal chemical abortions per month inside the state. Yet years after Dobbs returned regulatory authority to the states, federal policy still enables nationwide mail-order distribution of the abortion pill (effectively nullifying the life protections Dobbs restored). The mere fact that this litigation is necessary betrays the federal bureaucracy’s deep reluctance (or outright refusal) to accept the fullness of the promise of Dobbs — including the objective scientific reality of the personhood of the unborn.
Public discourse surrounding this case further exposes how thoroughly the abortion industry (and the broader cultural framework it sustains) has removed the unborn child from the continuum of human development. Media coverage and commentary fixate on women’s “access,” tele-abortion convenience, medication “safety,” and regulatory standing. Even many pro-life advocates, while affirming personhood in principle, often feel compelled to lead with maternal health risks, partner coercion, or federalism arguments. These points are valid and important, but their prominence as primary talking points underscores how deeply the premise that only born persons fully matter in our moral calculus has taken hold.
Chemical abortion now comprises 63% of U.S. abortions annually. An Ethics and Public Policy Center analysis of over 865,000 mifepristone cases documented a 10.93% serious adverse event rate (more than 22 times the FDA’s claims), including sepsis, hemorrhage, and emergency interventions. These harms to women are real and unacceptable.
Yet they are not the primary scandal. The central outrage is the routine chemical destruction of more than 700,000 unborn children each year. Public reaction often reveals ignorance or numbness: “just a clump of cells,” “potential life,” or “her body, her choice.” Not surprisingly, scientific literacy about human development is disturbingly low. Only 38% of Americans correctly identify fertilization as the start of a new human being. Among younger adults, nearly 40% believe a human life begins at birth.
This widespread view stands in direct contradiction to the objective, empirical facts of the biological science of human embryology. The 23 Carnegie Stages of Human Embryonic Development document the first eight weeks of a human being’s life and establish unequivocally that a new, whole, individual, and living human being begins to exist at fertilization (Carnegie Stage 1). This new human being immediately directs his or her own continuous development through every subsequent stage. Developmental milestones occur throughout life and do not confer or augment humanity. They simply manifest capacities and traits inherent in an already existing human being, from the very first moment.
During mifepristone’s typical use window (up to eight weeks post-fertilization, encompassing the entire embryonic period), development is remarkable. By roughly three weeks post-fertilization, the heart beats rhythmically, circulating the child’s own blood. By five weeks, the embryo has grown 10,000 times larger since day 1, moves spontaneously, responds to touch, and generates neurons in the brain at a rate of 250,000 per minute. By six weeks, brain waves are detectable and facial features take recognizable human form. By the close of the embryonic period at eight weeks (Carnegie Stage 23), he or she already possesses more than 90% of the named structures of the adult human body. These are not vague “potentials” or mere tissue but living human individuals on a purposeful developmental journey.
FOUR YEARS AFTER DOBBS, CONGRESS SHOULD STOP PUNISHING PREGNANCY CENTERS
Louisiana v. FDA thus epitomizes a profound national estrangement from biological and moral reality. We debate access protocols and regulatory technicalities while tolerating the chemical elimination of the most vulnerable among us. As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, this is an especially opportune moment for moral and intellectual honesty.
At minimum, the federal government must stop undermining states exercising their post-Dobbs authority. Genuine respect for human dignity starts with acknowledging the objective science of human embryology and grounding law, policy, and consent in that reality. Louisiana is showing the way. By rejecting the FDA’s science denial and cultural numbness, the state reminds us that America’s founding creed — that all men are created equal and endowed with the inalienable right to life — must apply to every human being, from the very beginning.
Brooke Stanton is the co-author of “The First 56 Days of You: How Your Human Journey Begins” and the chief executive officer of Contend Projects, a registered 501(c)(3) education organization spreading the basic, accurate scientific facts about when a human life starts and the biological science of human embryology.