Rep. Sara Jacobs slammed a Texas judge’s order Friday suspending the FDA’s two-decades-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone as a “misogynistic attack” on American women.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by Donald Trump and is the sole federal judge in remote Amarillo, granted a request by anti-abortion groups to ban sales of mifepristone nationwide.
“As a 34-year-old woman, I can’t take this anymore — another massive, misogynistic attack on my health care by a man who doesn’t know a damn thing about my body,” said the Democrat who represents the 51st District in central San Diego County.
“This has nothing to do with patient care — mifepristone is safer than Tylenol and has been approved by the FDA for two decades,” she said. “But yet again, radical Republicans are intervening where they don’t belong in personal and private health care decisions.”
By choosing to sue in Amarillo, the plaintiffs ensured that the case would go before Kacsmaryk, a conservative former Christian activist. The suit was filed by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, which was incorporated in Amarillo just three months earlier.
And in a competing opinion late Friday, a federal judge in Washington state ruled in a separate case involving mifepristone that the drug is safe and effective. U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice ordered the FDA to preserve “the status quo” and retain access to the drug.
Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland said the Justice Department would appeal the Texas order and is studying the Washington state ruling.
“The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the decision of the District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA and will be appealing the court’s decision and seeking a stay pending appeal,” Garland said.
“Today’s decision overturns the FDA’s expert judgment, rendered over two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective. The department will continue to defend the FDA’s decision.”
Legal experts said the conflicting orders will likely result in a quicker review by the Supreme Court.
Updated at 6:50 p.m., Friday, April 7, 2023
