(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – The US Justice Department will ask the Supreme Court to take up the case in which a Texas judge’s order threatened to block access to the chemical abortion drug mifepristone, the Biden administration has announced.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Thursday in a statement that the Justice Department was not satisfied with Wednesday’s ruling by an appeals court that kept mifepristone on the market but disputed specific Food and Drug Administration measures concerning the abortion pill.
In November, the Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-abortion nonprofit representing the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, and four pro-life doctors filed a lawsuit in Amarillo, Texas, arguing that, back in 2000, the FDA illegally approved the two-pill chemical abortion regime consisting of mifepristone and misoprostol.
Last Friday, US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a preliminary injunction blocking the FDA’s 23-year-old approval of mifepristone. This ruling would have prevented the sales of the abortion pill without a week.
On Monday, the Biden administration’s Justice Department appealed, and on Wednesday, the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals partly overrode Kacsmaryk’s order, allowing the sales of mifepristone to continue.
At the same time, however, the Fifth Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, ruled to block policy changes that the FDA introduced in 2016 and 2021, which made abortion pill access more liberal and limited reporting requirements for the non-lethal adverse effects of chemical abortion.
In 2016, the FDA allowed the abortion pill to be distributed by mail and increased the period during which it could be used through the 10th week of pregnancy.
In his statement on Thursday, Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland declared that his department “strongly disagrees with the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA.”
“We will be seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court to defend the FDA’s scientific judgment and protect Americans’ access to safe and effective reproductive care,” Garland stated.
Even though it kept mifepristone on the market, pro-life advocates “celebrated” the Fifth Circuit’s partial block of the FDA abortion pill regulations, The Daily Caller reported.
“The 5th Circuit’s decision is a significant victory for the doctors we represent, women’s health, and every American who deserves an accountable federal government acting within the bounds of the law,” declared Erin Hawley, the senior counsel of the Alliance Defending Freedom, who represented the plaintiffs.
Katie Daniel, the Susan B. Anthony State Policy Director of Pro-Life America, reacted by stating that her organization was “very encouraged” by the ruling.
“The Court recognized that the abortion pill is dangerous and rolled back Biden’s reckless mail-order abortion scheme,” Daniel said.
“We still believe it never should have been approved in the first place and we look forward to the Supreme Court hearing this case,” she added.
The United States Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
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