The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to clarify “significant tension” between his ruling on an abortion drug and another federal judge’s decision about the same thing.
The agency wants to know what its duties are on the drug mifepristone, which a Washington judge ruled should remain available in 17 states but a Texas judge suspended because he said it did not have proper approval.
TEXAS JUDGE SUSPENDS FDA APPROVAL OF MAJOR ABORTION PILL
“The result of that order appears to be in significant tension with this Court’s order prohibiting FDA from ‘altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone’ in Plaintiff States,” attorneys for the DOJ wrote in a five-page court filing Monday.
The DOJ’s request presumed the lack of clarity was due to the rulings being “issued less than 20 minutes apart.”
Texas-based U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk sided with anti-abortion groups on Friday, ruling that the Food and Drug Administration’s decades-old approval of mifepristone, the first of two abortion-inducing drugs used to terminate a pregnancy through 10 weeks, should be suspended. The decision gave the Biden administration a week to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and will not go into effect until then.
Soon after Kacsmaryk’s ruling, Washington-based U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rice issued a ruling directly contradicting it by ordering the FDA not to alter the drug’s availability.
In the case from Washington, 16 states and the District of Columbia sued the FDA, arguing it imposed a “unique set of restrictions,” known as Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, that imposed a burden on the drug that has been on the market for over 20 years and has “exceedingly rare” adverse effects.
DOJ lawyers said they want the Washington judge to clear up confusion about what must be done if the Texas case stays the FDA’s approval of the drug.
President Joe Biden’s administration immediately appealed Kacsmaryk’s decision to the 5th Circuit.
In the Monday filing, the DOJ warned that “if the Texas district court’s order takes effect, the order would — of its own force and without any further action by FDA — stay the effectiveness of FDA’s prior approvals of mifepristone nationwide.”
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Kacsmaryk said his Friday evening order would not go into effect for seven days to give the Justice Department time to appeal. If the 5th Circuit upholds Kacsmaryk’s decision or declines to place it on hold while the litigation proceeds, the administration will likely ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
Minutes after the filing, the DOJ filed a motion to the 5th Circuit asking for that court to issue a stay on Kacsmaryk’s ruling no later than Thursday at noon.
