Texas judge says states can revive challenge to abortion pill access
nationwide
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[January 17, 2025]
By GEOFF MULVIHILL and LINDSAY WHITEHURST
The Texas judge who previously halted approval of the nation’s most
common method of abortion ruled Thursday that three states can move
ahead with another attempt to roll back federal rules and make it harder
for people across the U.S. to access the abortion drug mifepristone.
Idaho, Kansas and Missouri requested late last year to pursue the case
in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, after the U.S. Supreme Court issued
a narrow ruling finding that abortion opponents who first filed the case
lacked the legal right to sue.
The only federal judge based in Amarillo is Matthew Kacsmaryk, a nominee
of former President Donald Trump who in recent years ruled against the
Biden administration on several issues, including immigration and LGBTQ
protections.
The states want the federal Food and Drug Administration to prohibit
telehealth prescriptions for mifepristone and require that it be used
only in the first seven weeks of pregnancy instead of the current limit
of 10 weeks. They also want to require three in-person doctor office
visits instead of none to get the drug.
That's because, the states argue, efforts to provide access to the pills
“undermine state abortion laws and frustrate state law enforcement,”
according to court documents.
Meanwhile, Kacsmaryk said they shouldn't be automatically discounted
from suing in Texas just because they're outside the state.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that the case should
have been settled when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously preserved
access to mifepristone last year, where the justices issued a narrow
ruling finding that abortion opponents who first filed the case lacked
the legal right to sue.
Kacsmaryk’s decision “has left the door open for extremist politicians
to continue attacking medication abortion in his courtroom," the ACLU
said.
The ruling comes days before Trump begins his second term as president,
so his administration will likely be representing the FDA in the case.
Trump has repeatedly said abortion is an issue for the states, not the
federal government, though he’s also stressed on the campaign trail that
he appointed justices to the Supreme Court who were in the majority when
striking down the national right to abortion in 2022.
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In the years since, abortion
opponents have increasingly targeted abortion pills, largely due to
most U.S. abortions being carried out using drugs rather than
through surgical procedures. So far, at least four states — Indiana,
Missouri, New Hampshire and Tennessee — have seen Republicans
introduce bills aimed at banning pills. None take the same approach
as Louisiana, which last year classified the drugs as controlled
dangerous substances.
Previously, Kacsmaryk sided with a group of
anti-abortion doctors and organizations that wanted the FDA to be
forced to rescind entirely its approval of mifepristone in 2000.
Yet the states are pursuing a narrower challenge. Rather than target
the approval entirely, they sought to undo a series of FDA updates
that have eased access.
But while the states’ leaders are pushing to severely limit access
to the drugs, voters in Missouri sent a different message in
November when they approved a ballot measure to undo one of the
nation’s strictest bans. In Idaho, abortion is banned at all stages
of pregnancy. In Kansas, abortion is generally legal up until the
22nd week of pregnancy.
Across the U.S., 13 states under Republican legislative control bar
abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions, and four
more ban it after the first six weeks — before women often know
they’re pregnant.
Some Democratic-controlled states have adopted laws seeking to
shield from investigations and prosecutions the doctors who
prescribe the pills via telehealth appointments and mail them to
patients in states with bans. Those prescriptions are a major reason
a study found that residents of states with bans are getting
abortions in about the same numbers as they were before the bans
were in place.
Mifepristone is usually used in combination with a second drug for
medication abortion, which has accounted for more than three-fifths
of all abortions in the U.S. since the Supreme Court’s ruling
overturning Roe v. Wade.
The drugs are different than Plan B and other emergency
contraceptives that are usually taken within three days after
possible conception, weeks before women know they’re pregnant.
Studies have found they’re generally safe and result in completed
abortions more than 97% of the time, which is less effective than
procedural abortions.
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Whitehurst reported from Washington. Associated Press writer
Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed.
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