WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice on Monday filed a request in federal court seeking to block a ruling last week by a Trump-appointed judge that endangers access to the key abortion pill mifepristone.
The Biden administration’s request asks the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals to put on hold U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk‘s ruling late last week to allow more time for the case to go through the appeals process.
Kacsmaryk’s ruling “upended decades of reliance by blocking FDA’s approval of mifepristone and depriving patients of access to this safe and effective treatment, based on the court’s own misguided assessment of the drug’s safety,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in court papers.
Last Friday, Kacmaryk issued a ruling that would suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s longtime approval of mifepristone — the first of the two-drug regimen used to carry out medicated abortions. The Amarillo, Texas-based judge, granted the plaintiffs in the case a decision that may halt the use of mifepristone nationwide. However, Kacmaryk said he would give the federal government a week to appeal his decision before it would take effect.
The DOJ quickly notified the Fifth Circuit on Friday night that it would appeal the ruling. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that Kacmaryk’s “decision overturns the FDA’s expert judgment, rendered over two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective. The Department will continue to defend the FDA’s decision.”
The DOJ quickly notified the Fifth Circuit on Friday night that it would appeal the ruling. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that Kacmaryk’s “decision overturns the FDA’s expert judgment, rendered over two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective. The Department will continue to defend the FDA’s decision.”
The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 to be used for terminating pregnancies through seven weeks. In 2016, the agency extended that regulation to allow it to be used for pregnancies up to 10 weeks. It’s used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol.
Complicating the situation further, a federal judge in Washington state issued a preliminary injunction in a different case on Friday barring the FDA from “altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of mifepristone.” That ruling applies only to the 18 liberal-leaning states that filed a lawsuit in February challenging the FDA’s regulations over the drug.
The dueling decisions in Texas and Washington could mean that the Supreme Court may soon take up the matter on an accelerated basis.
If the Texas judge’s ruling on the FDA’s mifepristone approval goes into effect, the drug could no longer be dispensed in the U.S., leaving pregnant people wanting abortions facing a major obstacle. It would leave a surgical abortion procedure or off-label use of misoprostol as the only options in states where abortion is legal. While misoprostol can be used alone for abortions, experts have said that it’s not as effective in terminating pregnancies as it is in tandem with mifepristone.
A majority of abortions in the U.S. have been carried out with the use of pills, according to a survey conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday walked back comments made by Secretary Xavier Becerra, who suggested on Sunday that the Biden administration could simply ignore the Texas judge’s ruling.
At an event outside Atlanta, Becerra also said on Monday that “mifepristone is still legal for use.”
“Mifepristone is still available today,” he said, “And we are going to do everything we can within the legal process to ensure that that doesn’t change.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
