Abortion access in the U.S. was dealt a major blow Friday as a far-right federal judge in Texas halted the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, potentially laying the groundwork to bar access nationwide to an abortion pill that’s used by hundreds of thousands annually.
But the situation only sank further into uncertainty after another federal judge, just minutes later, issued an opposing order that instructed the FDA to continue to allow the drug to be dispensed.
Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump who’s become notorious for spewing ultra-conservative views far outside mainstream opinion, first ruled to suspend the drug’s approval after anti-abortion groups had petitioned him to do so.
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Kacsmaryk gave the Biden administration seven days to appeal the ruling, meaning the ruling does not immediately take effect and patients will not immediately be affected.
U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice then issued an opposing injunction that effectively forbid the FDA from immediately pulling the drug.
The separate rulings immediately sparked confusion.
“FDA is under one order that says you can do nothing and another that says in seven days I’m going to require you to vacate the approval of mifepristone,” Glenn Cohen of Harvard Law School told the AP.
Reproductive rights advocates wasted no time in warning of the disastrous consequences Kacsmaryk’s ruling could have, however.
His decision casts doubt on the FDA’s 2000 determination that mifepristone, the first in a two-pill procedure used to terminate pregnancies, was safe to use. Since that ruling, millions in America have taken the pill.
Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, denounced the decision Friday, saying in a statement: “We deserve more than an anti-abortion minority manipulating our legal system to defy the law, logic, science, and public support. We are still distilling this unprecedented decision and don’t know yet the length or depth of its impact. But what’s clear is that this sort of weaponization of the judiciary is a threat to our democracy and we must work to restore justice in every way possible.”
“It’s hard to overstate the impact of today’s callous decision to ban one of the most important and common methods of abortion care. This medicine has gone through the toughest safety reviews and has been used safely and effectively for over 20 years. We need expanded access to abortion care, not court rulings based in junk science,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman, the director of the research group Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health.
Jenny Ma, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, previously told USA Today that loss of access to mifepristone “will unleash a public health crisis by removing health-care options for millions of people.”
Kacsmaryk’s ruling joins the fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate any federal constitutional right to an abortion last year. While states moved quickly to either protect abortion access or restrict it, Kacsmaryk’s ruling could remove the right to an abortion pill even in states where abortion access remains legal.
It’s not surprising Kacsmaryk was singled out by anti-abortion activists to push the ruling through. Since his appointment in 2017, Kacsmaryk has described transgender people as having a “mental disorder,” and claimed that gay people are “disordered.”
The timing of the decision isn’t a coincidence either. It comes on the heels of the FDA giving pharmacies the all-clear in January to issue mifepristone without a doctor’s visit.
