Who Are the Doctors Suing FDA Over the Abortion Pill?

Despite the high-profile nature of its case challenging FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone (Mifeprex), the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM) remains something of a black box, and four individual physicians are listed as plaintiffs in the case as well.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when the umbrella group was founded. Its website first appeared in November 2021, according to the Internet Archive, but the site remained bare until June 20, 2022 — just days before the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

AHM is represented in its lawsuit by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative advocacy group launched by Christian leaders almost three decades ago, according to its website.

AHM reportedly incorporated in Amarillo, Texas in August 2022, and its mailing address is in Bristol, Tennessee, according to the nonprofit tracker GuideStar. There’s no federal tax form 990 for the group on GuideStar.

The groups focused on the Amarillo-based court in part because it was “primed to deliver outcomes favorable to conservatives,” according to a memo from reproductive freedom group NARAL Pro-Choice America. Notably, 95% of cases in Amarillo go to conservative Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, according to the memo. Kacsmaryk was appointed by former president Trump in 2019.

AHM’s website offers no details about its leadership, but a March 2022 correspondence from the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative Christian think tank, lists Indiana ob/gyn Christina Francis, MD, as AHM’s president.

Francis is the current CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), which is one of the five “partnering organizations” listed on the AHM website. Other organizations include the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds), the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA), and the Coptic Medical Association of North America (CMANA).

In addition to those five groups, four doctors are listed as plaintiffs on the lawsuit:

• Shaun Jester, DO, an ob/gyn in Dumas, Texas
• Regina Frost-Clark, MD, an ob/gyn in St. Clair Shores, Michigan
• Tyler Johnson, DO, an emergency physician in Leo, Indiana
• George Delgado, MD, a family physician in Escondido, California

Jester is the medical director of Moore County Obstetrics & Gynecology, which is about 50 miles north of Amarillo.

Frost-Clark is an ob/gyn at Ascension Medical Group St. John OB/Gyn Associates. In a 2020 guest sermon posted by Detroit World Outreach church on Facebook, Frost-Clark said she is the chair of the Women Physicians in Christ. AHM partner organization CMDA hosts the annual conference for Women Physicians & Dentists in Christ.

Johnson is the director of emergency medicine at Parkview DeKalb Hospital in Auburn, Indiana. He was elected as a Republican to the Indiana state senate in 2022, where he represents portions of Allen and DeKalb counties.

Delgado is the director of medical affairs at Culture of Life Family Services (COLFS), “the only organization in Southern California which offers comprehensive medical care and pro-life pregnancy clinic services for women and children,” according to the group’s website.

AHM’s lawsuit against FDA also stated that Delgado “established the Abortion Pill Reversal program — a process that can reverse the effects of chemical abortion drug regimen and allow women and girls to continue their pregnancies.” COLFS pioneered the Abortion Pill Reversal program, according to its website, and CMA in 2021 awarded Delgado its “Evangelium Vitae Award” for his work on the program.

AHM claimed in a press release to represent “more than 30,000 healthcare professionals,” but the group did not respond to multiple requests to verify this claim.

Additionally, the five AHM member organizations either did not respond to requests for comment, or directed inquires to the AHM legal team, which did not respond.

American College of Pediatricians

ACPeds — not to be confused with the premier professional society of pediatricians, the American Academy of Pediatrics — frequently files anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ amicus briefs, according to filings posted on its website. It’s had tax-exempt status since 2003, according to GuideStar.

President Michael Artigues, MD, practices general pediatrics in McComb, Mississippi. Jill Simons, MD, is the executive director and practices at Children’s Minnesota and Mercy Hospital in Minnesota.

The group issued a press release on April 11 in support of the Texas ruling. The release quotes Artigues and links to a “fact” sheet about the alleged dangers of “chemical abortion.”

American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists

AAPLOG formed in 1973, the same year as the landmark case Roe v. Wade. The Eau Claire, Michigan-based group received tax-exempt status in 1981, according to GuideStar.

Steven Braatz, MD, is president of the board, and Christina Francis, MD, is CEO. Both are practicing ob/gyns: Braatz at Northeastern Health Center in northern California, and Francis at health systems in Fort Wayne, Indiana, according to the AAPLOG website.

Francis took over leadership shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

The group’s website includes a prominent section on abortion pill reversal and encourages providers to help women reverse their medication abortions with progesterone.

Catholic Medical Association

The oldest organization in the alliance is the CMA, founded in the early 1900s and based in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.

The executive director is Mario R. Dickerson, who has a background in strategic planning, not medicine. However, the board includes doctors, including president Craig L. Treptow, MD, who is a family medicine physician in Great Falls, Montana.

The CMA issues conservative position papers and amicus briefs, including a 2015 position paper detailing that victims of rape who get pregnant should not be offered emergency contraception because “her traumatic circumstances may turn into a life-giving and healing experience when she is engulfed in love and care.”

Other stances include allowing treatment for erectile dysfunction only for married, heterosexual men, and that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention should not be prescribed outside heterosexual marriage “to avoid endorsing immoral activity and creating scandal,” according to the CMA website.

Christian Medical and Dental Associations

Like AHM, the CMDA is based in Bristol, Tennessee. Leadership for the organization includes CEO Mike Chupp, MD, and Jeffrey J. Barrows, DO, senior vice president of bioethics and public policy.

Prior to CMDA, Chupp was a missionary and surgeon in multiple health systems. Barrows founded a Christian anti-sex trafficking group in Columbus, Ohio, called Gracehaven.

Coptic Medical Association of North America

The CMANA is the youngest member of the AHM, receiving tax exempt status in 2011. The organization of Christian medical providers who are also Egyptian is based in Manlius, New York, as GuideStar lists.

Hani Ashamalla, MD, a radiation oncologist in Brooklyn, leads CMANA as president, alongside Ayman Iskander, MD, who serves as treasurer, according to the group’s website. Iskander is a cardiologist at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, New York.