The Texas judge, who previously halted approval of the nation’s most common abortion method, ruled Thursday that three states can move forward with a new attempt to roll back federal rules and make making it more difficult for United States citizens to access abortion. mifepristone, abortion medication.
Idaho, Kansas and Missouri filed late last year to continue the case in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a restrictive ruling finding that abortion opponents who had filed the case first did not have the legal right to sue.
The only federal judge based in Amarillo is Matthew Kacsmaryk, a nominee of former President Donald Trump who in recent years has ruled against the Biden administration on several issues, including immigration and LGBTQ protections.
States want the federal Food and Drug Administration ban telehealth prescriptions for mifepristone and require it to be used only during the first seven weeks of pregnancy instead of the current limit of 10 weeks. They also want to require three in-person doctor visits instead of none to get the drug.
Indeed, states say efforts to provide access to the pills “undermine the nation’s abortion laws and frustrate law enforcement,” according to court documents.
Meanwhile, Kacsmaryk said they should not be automatically barred from suing in Texas just because they are out of state.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday the case should have been settled when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously. preserved access to mifepristone last year, where the justices issued a narrow ruling concluding that abortion opponents who filed first did not have the legal right to sue.
Kacsmaryk’s decision “left the door open for extremist politicians to continue attacking medication abortion in her courtroom,” the ACLU said.
The ruling comes days before Trump begins his second term as president, so his administration will likely represent the FDA in the matter. Trump has repeatedly said that abortion is an issue for the states and not the federal government, although he also emphasized on the campaign trail that he had appointed Supreme Court justices who were in the majority when they canceled the national right to abortion in 2022.
In the years since, abortion opponents have increasingly targeted abortion pills, largely because most abortions in the United States are performed using medications rather than surgical procedures. So far, at least four states — Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire and Tennessee — have seen Republicans introduce bills to ban the pills. None take the same approach as Louisiana, which last year classified drugs as controlled dangerous substances.
Previously, Kacsmaryk sided with a group of doctors and anti-abortion organizations who wanted the FDA to be forced to rescind its approval of mifepristone entirely in 2000.
Yet states are pursuing a narrower challenge. Rather than targeting approval entirely, they sought to undo a series of FDA updates that made it easier to access.
But while state leaders work to severely limit access to the drugs, Missouri voters sent a different message in November when they approved a ballot measure to lift one of the country’s strictest bans. country. In Idaho, abortion is prohibited at all stages of pregnancy. In Kansas, abortion is generally legal up to the 22nd week of pregnancy.
In the United States, 13 states under Republican legislative control ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with few exceptions, and four others ban it after the first six weeks – before women often know they are are pregnant.
Some Democratic-controlled states have passed laws aimed at protecting from investigation and prosecution doctors who prescribe the pills via telehealth appointments and mail them to patients in banned states. These prescriptions are a major reason a study revealed that residents of states subject to bans are having abortions in roughly the same numbers as before the bans took effect.
Mifepristone is typically used in combination with a second drug for medical abortion, which accounts for more than three-fifths of all abortions in the United States since the Supreme Court ruling. decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
The drugs are different from Plan B and other emergency contraceptives that are typically taken within three days of possible conception, weeks before women know they are pregnant. Studies have found they are generally safe and result in complete abortions in more than 97% of cases, which is less effective than procedural abortions.
