The Justice Department filed an immediate appeal after a Texas federal judge’s shocking decision Friday to pull the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medical abortions.
The Justice Department appealed directly to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Friday night, just hours after the initial decision.
US Attorney Merrick Garland said in statement that the DOJ “disagrees with the decision” and “will appeal the court’s decision and request a pending appeal.”
“Today’s decision overturns the FDA’s expert opinion, given more than two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective,” Garland wrote. “The department will continue to defend the FDA’s decision.”
US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that the FDA’s approval of mifepristone was invalid when the drug was first launched on the market in 2000. Kacsmaryk stated in his decision that the FDA “deceited and misunderstood” certain parts of the drug’s approval process in order “to choose the green light. chemical abortion on a large scale.”
The decision did not take effect for seven days, allowing the DOJ’s appeal to proceed.
Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group, filed the lawsuit in November in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, arguing that the FDA overstepped its authority 22 years ago and fast-tracked mifepristone’s approval. But the medication abortion, a combination of mifepristone and another drug called misoprostol, has a safe and effective track record of more than 20 years of FDA approval. Medication abortion accounts for nearly 60% of all abortion and miscarriage treatments in the US
A federal judge in Washington state issued a competing ruling also on Friday, which blocked the FDA from withdrawing approval of mifepristone in 17 states and the District of Columbia. The contested decision will force the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in quickly, law graduate speculation.
Garland said in a statement Friday night that the DOJ is also reviewing the Washington state judge’s decision.
Although there is a lot of confusion about the Texas judge’s ruling and what will happen next, it is certainly a devastating blow to abortion rights across the country.
Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement Friday night that the decision was an “unprecedented decision.”
“Simply put: this decision undermines the FDA’s ability to approve safe and effective drugs — from chemotherapy drugs, to asthma drugs, to blood pressure pills, to insulin — based on science, not politics,” he wrote.
“Every person in our country should have the right to access safe and effective medicine that has been approved by the FDA. In the face of attacks on women’s right to access abortion, our Administration will continue to fight to protect reproductive freedom and the ability of all Americans to make health care decisions with doctors free from political interference.