DOJ asks appeals court to stay Texas ruling against FDA abortion drug approval
Kaelan Deese
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The Justice Department asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to stay a Texas judge’s order to suspend the Food and Drug Administration‘s approval of a common abortion drug, asking for intervention no later than Thursday at noon.
“The district court’s extraordinary and unprecedented order should be stayed pending appeal,” the DOJ wrote in a 20-page filing Monday afternoon.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ASKS WASHINGTON COURT TO CLARIFY ORDER MAINTAINING ABORTION PILL
“Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge FDA’s approval of a drug they neither take nor prescribe; their challenge to FDA actions dating back to 2000 is manifestly untimely; and they have provided no basis for second-guessing FDA’s scientific judgment,” the filing added.
Minutes before the DOJ’s request, the agency also asked for “clarification” on a Washington-based federal judge’s ruling to maintain abortion drug availability in 17 states, saying it’s in “significant tension” with a Texas federal judge’s ruling suspending the approval of mifepristone.
Texas-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk sided with anti-abortion groups on Friday, ruling the FDA’s decades-old approval of mifepristone, the first drug commonly used to terminate a pregnancy through 10 weeks, should be suspended.
Soon after Kacsmaryk’s ruling, Washington-based U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice issued a ruling directly contradicting it, holding that mifepristone is safe. The Washington ruling ordered the FDA to make no changes to the availability of the drug.
Rice wrote that abortion restrictions “vary state-by-state.” He also appeared to reference the Texas ruling, saying that a nationwide injunction is “inappropriate where there is the potential for competing litigation.”
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The Biden administration has already appealed the Texas decision to the 5th Circuit, a court that is dominated by appointees of Republican presidents.
If 5th Circuit upholds Kacymaryk’s decision or declines to place it on hold while the litigation proceeds, the administration will likely ask the Supreme Court to intervene.