NOT YOUR CALL, JUDGE
Fed health big blasts ruling to block abort pill, may even defy it
A federal judge’s decision to block the availability of widely used abortion drug mifepristone is “reckless” and “not America,” the nation’s highest ranking health official said Sunday.
The Biden administration has filed an appeal of the ruling by the Texas judge on Friday to override FDA approval of mifepristone, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“What you saw by that one judge in that one court, in that one state, that’s not America,” Becerra said. “America goes by the evidence.
“We want the courts to overturn this reckless decision,” he said.
Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump, gave the government seven days to appeal his decision, in which he said the Food and Drug Administration rushed its approval of mifepristone in 2000.
The drug is used to end pregnancies up to 10 weeks and treat women who have had miscarriages.
On the same day, a federal judge in Washington state ordered U.S. authorities not to make any changes restricting access to the drug in at least 17 states.
The competing rulings make it likely the dispute will go before the Supreme Court. The conservative high court voted less than a year ago to overturn Roe v. Wade, which protected abortion rights nationwide for almost 50 years.
The HHS Secretary said he could not rule out a call, made by some Democrats, to defy the Texas judge’s order. “Every option is on the table,” he said. One of those calling for the administration to ignore Kacsmaryk’s decision is New York’s Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“This ruling is an extreme abuse of power,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN. “It is an extraordinary example of judicial overreach.”
A Supreme Court decision overruling the FDA process “would essentially institute a national abortion ban,” she said. “Then we are in extremely dangerous territory.”
She explained that ignoring the ruling is a legal process called “agency nonacquiescence.”
The Trump administration employed the process when it defied orders to reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program that protected undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, Ocasio-Cortez said.
“The executive branch has an enforcement discretion, especially in light of a contradicting ruling coming out of Washington,” she said.
Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales battled back at the idea of ignoring the ruling.
“We have to uphold our institutions. It’s dangerous when we erode them,” he said on CNN.
He said women have other issues to discuss and suggested: “Get off the abortion conversation.”
Becerra added that one judge overturning the FDA’s approval process puts “every kind of drug” in jeopardy.
“If a judge decides to substitute his preference, his personal opinion for that of scientists and medical professionals, what drug isn’t subject to some kind of legal challenge?” Becerra asked.