Hundreds of individuals and organizations have signed onto amicus briefs urging both the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court to block a lower court decision that could threaten access to an abortion drug throughout the U.S.
“A broad range of experts, including the Center for Reproductive Rights, filed almost 50 amicus briefs urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a district court decision that aims to block the FDA’s long-standing approval of mifepristone, the first pill in the two-drug regimen for medication abortion,” said women’s rights advocate Lisa McCormick. “If this barbaric decision is allowed to take effect, a biased anti-abortion judge would remove the drug from the market nationwide even in states where abortion is protected.”
McCormick said the judge who rendered the ridiculous verdict was selected by plaintiffs in this case for his puritanical religious beliefs.
“Matthew Kacsmaryk is a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas who was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017,” said McCormick. “He went into this case intending to rule that abortion is immoral and illegal, not because that is the law but because those are his religious beliefs. This same judge has disclosed his antiquated, superannuated and obsolescent perspective with articles criticizing protections for transgender people and those seeking abortions and arguing that Ronald Reagan destroyed the institution of marriage in America by enacting California’s no-fault divorce law.”
“Kacsmaryk’s ruling makes it clear that access to abortion is under assault everywhere. MAGA judges can reach across state lines and overrule the will of voters in red states and blue states who’ve fought to keep abortion legal,” said McCormick. “The argument that the Republican Party is trying to repeal the 20th century was meant as truth wrapped in snarky hyperbole. Unfortunately, it has become distressingly apparent over the years, that it is actually truth wrapped in truth.”
After the Fifth Circuit issued a ruling on April 12 largely refusing to block the district court’s order, on April 14, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order temporarily preventing the district court’s order from taking effect.
The stay lasted through April 21, when the Court granted a stay of the lower court decision. The stay leaves mifepristone on the market while the case proceeds at the Fifth Circuit Court, which is scheduled to hear the case on May 17.
Leading medical and health organizations; pharmaceutical companies; current and former government officials; members of Congress; reproductive health, rights and justice advocates; and many other experts submitted friend of the court briefs supporting the FDA.
“For an ideology supposedly predicated upon getting government out of people’s lives, conservatives seem awfully determined to insert themselves brazenly into women’s uteruses,” said McCormick. “It seems obvious that the GOP’s target was never so-called ‘big government,’ but rather, modernity itself, progress itself, change itself — the repeal of the 20th century. That was, remember, the century that saw African Americans finally win voting rights, gay people escape the metaphorical closet and labor unions win higher wages and better conditions for American workers.”
These authorities argue that the lower court’s decision, if allowed to take effect, would upend the FDA’s scientific-based process in approving drugs; risk other drugs that have been approved by the agency; harm patient health; and interfere with patient decision-making.
In addition, several briefs outline mifepristone’s proven safety and efficacy since it was first approved more than two decades ago.
These are the briefs making various arguments that have been filed in this case.
- City of New York and Santa Clara County
- Doctors for America and the Reproductive Health Coalition
- Food and Drug Law Scholars
- Former DOJ Officials
- Former FDA Commissioners
- Former FDA Officials
- GenBioPro
- Honeybee Health
- Legal Voice
- Local Governments
- Medical and Public Health Experts
- Medical Students for Choice
- 253 Members of Congress
- National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health and American College of Nurse-Midwives
- Patient and Provider Advocacy Organizations
- Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
- Pharmaceutical Companies
- Physicians for Reproductive Health
- Pro-Choice States
- Public Citizen
- Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice Advocates
- City of New York and Santa Clara County
- Doctors for America and the Reproductive Health Coalition
- Food and Drug Law Scholars
- Former DOJ Officials
- Former FDA Officials
- GenBioPro
- Legal Voice
- Local Governments
- Medical and Public Health Experts
- 253 Members of Congress
- NAACP Legal Defense Fund
- Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
- Pharmaceutical Companies
- Physicians for Reproductive Health
- Pro-Choice States
- Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice Advocates
- City of New York and Santa Clara County
- Doctors for America and the Reproductive Health Coalition
- Former DOJ Officials
- Former FDA Officials
- Local Governments
- Medical and Public Health Experts
- Members of Congress
- NAACP Legal Defense Fund
- Pharmaceutical Companies
- Physicians for Reproductive Health
- Pro-Choice States
- Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice Advocates
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