The drug mifepristone is safe. In fact, what’s unsafe is its absence, as the lack of the crucial abortion-inducing drug will push women to have abortions in more dangerous ways, which is why it’s been FDA-approved for more than 20 years.
Not on the watch of Texas Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who Friday issued an injunction overruling this FDA approval, staying the order for seven days. It turned out that only a few hours were necessary to throw access into further uncertainty as Federal Judge Thomas Rice in Washington State issued a directly conflicting injunction ordering the government to maintain the drug’s status quo.
From the get-go, the Texas case should have been tossed without further ado and with prejudice. People can attempt to file litigation arguing anything they want, but the system is supposed to quickly dismiss frivolous suits, and this was as frivolous as it gets, a nakedly political effort where the ostensible legal arguments are an absurd pretext for an ideologically-driven, rights-restricting outcome, coming decades after the approval at issue.
Unfortunately, the arguments came to the chambers of Kacsmaryk, a well-known right-wing ideologue and skeptic of legal gains made in recent years by women, LGBTQ people and others. The jurist found in the complaint common cause with anti-abortion activists working towards the same goals he has espoused over a long and well-documented history of advocating for extremist religious encroachment on Americans’ liberties.
His order is riddled with his own clear prejudice, referring to embryos and fetuses consistently as “unborn children,” cherry-picking incidents of adverse effects instead of considering the foundational question of whether there’s any evidence the drug is unsafe, and musing about the mental health impact of abortions on women, ignoring the devastating impacts of lack of access. Fortunately, Judge Rice stood in the way.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court must now resolve the conflict, a prime target for its own clear political leanings. It has a chance to prove us wrong and look only at the facts. Let’s hope they do.
