Democrats are gearing up for a fight over the right to access abortion pills. Over half of US abortions are performed using medication, and abortion access, already restricted in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, is now again at risk.
Two federal courts have now issued conflicting rulings on the Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 decision to approve the abortion drug mifepristone. Texas Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who has been outspoken about his anti-abortion views, suspended the FDA’s approval of the drug on Friday but there are seven days to allow for an appeal. That same day, a Washington judge barred the FDA from taking “any action to remove mifepristone from the market or otherwise cause the drug to become less available” in 17 states and Washington, DC.
For now, mifepristone is still available. But the conflicting rulings last week have made a US Supreme Court showdown on the issue much more likely — triggering a five-alarm fire for Democrats, who have proposed bills to protect access to mifepristone and are weighing other options to save medication abortion.
There’s a limit to what congressional Democrats can do to protect access given that they don’t control the US House and don’t have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. That leaves most of Democrats’ potential solutions in the executive branch’s hands. The government has already appealed the Kacsmaryk ruling, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told CNN on Sunday that “everything is on the table.”
That includes directing the FDA to ignore any court decision, an idea that would raise numerous legal questions and could set an unpredictable precedent. Still, some legal experts argue the executive branch does have the power to order the FDA to do so.
But at the very least, the issue presents a pro-abortion-access messaging opportunity similar to the one that arose in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year….
Read the full article here
