The appeals court is asked to stay the judge’s order that could make abortion pill unavailable Friday
The Case for a Supreme Court Injunction to Overturn the FDA’s Order to End Mifepristone in the U.S. Today and Tomorrow
It started a legal battle that is bound to reach the Supreme Court. There is the question over whether the judge overstepped his power to halt the FDA’s approval for mifepristone – a key resource given that half of US abortions are performed using medication. And the Washington judge’s ruling sets up the kind of dueling interpretations of law only the Supreme Court can resolve.
The GOP and the Democrats were screaming at one another during the storm on Sunday. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra vowed that women would have safe and effective medication available after the administration launched a legal appeal to stop the suspension from going into force on Friday.
Kacsmaryk, however, argued that the FDA had “entirely failed to consider the psychological effects of the drug or an evaluation of its long term-term medical consequences.” American Medical Association President Jack Resneck, Jr. criticized the judge’s “disregard for well-established scientific facts in favor of speculative allegations and ideological assertions will cause harm to our patients and undermines the health of the nation.” He added: “By rejecting medical facts, the court has intruded into the exam room and has intervened in decisions that belong to patients and physicians.”
Such a move would be very damaging to the health care system in the US and would deepen thecrimony surrounding the regulatory approval process.
Gonzales told Bash that it is important that we have real discussions on women’s health care. “Women have a whole lot more other issues than just abortion. Let’s talk about the other things that are happening in the world, and have those real conversations.
The new front in the abortion battle is only going to intensify the current political tumult, which is also being fueled by a building debt-ceiling clash and the recent indictment of Donald Trump. The ruling by Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by the ex-president, caused some potentially intractable controversy.
Now, the drug’s future is in jeopardy. A federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction that overturns the FDA’s approval of mifepristone nationwide beginning this Friday. Meanwhile, a competing ruling out of Washington state could limit the Texas injunction’s reach.
The authority of the agency under the Constitution and statutes is challenged in more consequential cases. The agency was able to move forward after the Supreme Court struck down its attempt to regulate the marketing of tobacco products. An expanding constitutional doctrine of corporate speech has led the courts to limit the ability of the F.D.A. to protect the public.
Monday is the day of the week when the F.D.A. is in court. Also, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Sometimes the weekends, too. The agency’s large stable of dedicated attorneys defends its actions on a multitude of issues. These include routine administrative matters such as whether the agency moved too fast or too slow on a generic drug approval or whether the agency has missed regulatory deadlines.
Is Abortion Legal in the United States? The Case against a New Obscenity Law in the Light of a Resurrection
More than half of US abortions take place with medication abortion and some states disagree that the ruling outlaws this procedure. The office of the governor of California said that abortion is still legal in the state and will not stand by as fundamental freedoms are stripped away. New York will remain a safe home for anyone seeking abortion care, as was stated in a statement by the Attorney General.
The case is also notable for relying on the Comstock Act, a 150-year-old obscenity law that, among other things, bans the shipping of materials related to abortion. The opinion approvingly interprets its ban on any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use it or apply it for producing abortion” as a ban on mailing mifepristone even for legal abortions. Kacsmaryk writes that the statute does not require intent on the part of the seller to allow drugs to be used unlawfully. The latest sign of long-dormant obscenity rules being resurrected is an attempt to ban books in Virginia using a forgotten state statute.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals can reverse the stay on the ruling, which is muddy in the short term. (The Fifth Circuit is notably the one that allowed a ban on internet moderation to stand in 2022.) The Women’s Law Project pointed out in February that the FDA can limit the ruling’s effects even if it isn’t allowed to stand. Its response may determine whether manufacturers and sellers of the drug maintain patients’ access to the pill in the face of legal uncertainty.
This uncertainty does not mean that it is impossible to get a medication abortion in the US. The suit only covers mifepristone, part of a two-drug combination that’s commonly prescribed to terminate pregnancy. The second half of the combination is also a good option for many other conditions like blisters and cuts, in addition to being an effective abortioncient. It is possible for someone ordering a medication that can be used for abortions to face legal risks, however organizations like Plan C have guides for it.
A Republican congresswoman who represents a swing district in South Carolina urged the Food and Drug Administration on Monday to ignore a recent ruling by a federal judge suspending the approval of a medication drug used for abortion.
This drug is approved by the FDA. I support the usage of FDA-approved drugs, even if we might disagree,” Rep. Nancy Mace told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “This Morning.” “It’s not up to us to decide as legislators or even, you know, as the court system that whether or not this is the right drug to use or not.”
Mace considers herself “pro-life,” as does virtually every Republican office-holder on the national level. But in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the party has had to navigate a political landscape in which harsh restrictions on the procedure have proven politically unpopular.
Tina Smith of Minnesota is a Democratic senator and told CNN that she does not want to know where the ban will end up.
An Administrative Stay from the 5th Circuit for Access to Mamifepristone Without a Migdal-Jacobi Trial
The Justice Department asked a federal appeals court on Monday to put on hold a judge’s ruling that could make a medication abortion drug unavailable nationwide starting Friday at midnight.
If an administrative stay were put in place it would give the court more room to consider whether to freeze Kacsmaryk’s ruling. The Justice Department and Danco, a manufacturer of the drug mifepristone that intervened in the case to defend the FDA’s approval in 2000, had both already filed notices of appeal.
The order would not go into effect for seven days to give the Justice Department time to appeal. If the Justice Department doesn’t win a stay from the 5th Circuit, it is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The judge who heard that case was appointed by the president. He ruled that the agency couldn’t alter access to the drug until the lawsuit was over. If the Texas injunction goes into effect, that decision could offer relief to those in 17 states and the District of Columbia.
Mifeprex vs. Generic Drug Approval in the U.S. Supreme Court of Appeals, and the Laws of Abortion Rights
The name-brand drug Mifeprex was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration more than 20 years ago. Since then, it has been used millions of times, and major medical groups say it has a strong safety record. There was a generic version approved in 2019.
The U.S. Department of Justice has already appealed the Texas ruling. That will be heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is generally a more conservative appeals court.
“Everyone’s eyes are now pointed back towards D.C.,” said Katie Glenn Daniel, the state policy director at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. We anticipate that the Supreme Court will have to weigh in on both the merits of this case and the injunctions now dueling injunctions.
The Texas lawsuit, filed by a coalition of abortion rights opponents, raised questions about the process by which the FDA originally approved the drug in 2000.
Meanwhile, there’s a competing ruling out of Washington state, where the attorneys general of 17 states and the District of Columbia had sought to force the FDA to expand access to the drug.
(Those states are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.)
For residents of those states, Rice’s decision “preserves the status quo on ensuring that access to mifepristone remains available,” said Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson to NPR on Friday.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas wants to know if medications that have already been prescribed can be filled. The lowest court order doesn’t answer these questions.
“We absolutely hope the Supreme Court resolves this issue once and for all. It’s been decades in the making,” said Chelsey Youman, an attorney with Human Coalition, an anti-abortion-rights group that filed an amicus brief in the Texas case.
Like much of the past couple years since the Supreme Court swung conservative and Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion providers have been consulting with lawyers and preparing for multiple scenarios.
In a fast changing environment it will be working closely with legal advisers. In the next seven days, I think that will be it for that, and probably beyond that,” said the chief operating officer at Carafem.
Using only misoprostol can be effective. The World Health Organization and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are both in favor of the one-medication protocol.
