Texas judge open to claims abortion drug wasn’t properly vetted: Reports
Kaelan Deese
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After a nearly four-hour federal court hearing in Amarillo, Texas, about the safety and approval of a common abortion pill, a judge presiding over the trial appeared receptive to claims the drug wasn’t properly vetted.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk seemed open to the argument that the drug mifepristone, which is the first drug used to induce an abortion, had not been properly vetted when it was approved in 2000, a claim the Food and Drug Administration, along with other leading health organizations, strongly disputes.
FOUR THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT MAJOR TEXAS COURT CASE AGAINST ABORTION PILL ACCESS
“The court will issue an order and opinion as soon as possible,” Kacsmaryk said.
A reporter who was at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas tweeted throughout the hearing on Wednesday that “Kacsmaryk appeared to seriously entertain claims that mifepristone is unsafe,” adding that he asked attorneys for the plaintiffs whether he could come up with an “analogue where courts have intervened in such a way” over two decades after a drug has been approved.
“No, I can’t,” said Erik Baptist, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom. Baptist added that people spent years attempting to challenge the drug’s approval outside of courts and through the FDA directly.
The highly anticipated hearing marked the largest legal case against abortion practices since the Supreme Court’s 6-3 Republican-appointed majority overturned Roe v. Wade last year, allowing states to impose laws severely restricting or prohibiting such procedures.
The lawsuit stems from the Texas-based Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and other religious doctors suing the FDA in November, asking for a preliminary order halting the sales of the drug while their lawsuit plays out through the federal court system.
By filing the lawsuit in Amarillo, where the ADF had been incorporated just three months before, the plaintiffs were able to guarantee their case landed before Kacsmaryk, an appointee of President Donald Trump who served as a deputy general counsel to the First Liberty Institute, a firm that has represented a multitude of Christian plaintiffs in First Amendment cases all the way up to the Supreme Court.
If Kacsmaryk were to issue a nationwide injunction against the drug, the Biden administration is likely to appeal that decision swiftly, which will then carry the case up to the Republican-majority U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
However, some legal experts have speculated the judge could seek a narrower route by prohibiting the drug from being sold in the state of Texas alone.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to ADF and Planned Parenthood for comment.
This is a developing story and will be updated.