Abort drug case stirs cries of ‘kangaroo court’ in Tex.
The process by which the Food and Drug Administration approved the medicated abortion pill mifepristone more than 20 years ago appeared to be among the issues weighing on U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk as the Texas adjudicator considered a bid to roll back access to the drug.
He vowed Wednesday to make a ruling “as soon as possible” but gave no explicit timeline.
The anticipated ruling is in response to a lawsuit from the faith-based, anti-abortion group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Kacsmaryk’s decision could ultimately lead to a nationwide injunction on the drug, blocking health care providers from prescribing it even in states where abortion is legal.
During Wednesday’s proceedings, the federal judge — a conservative appointed by former President Donald Trump — heard from physicians’ groups, the Biden administration and the FDA, who argued for the legality of the drug’s approval.
Kacsmaryk repeatedly referenced last year’s Supreme Court’s reversal of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion rights the law of the land for nearly 50 years. The judge reportedly suggested that could factor into his ruling.
Because of the two decades that have passed since mifepristone’s initial approval, Kascmaryk likened arguments over that window to “a nightmarish law school question on tolling.”
The judge also considered arguments that the FDA’s actions were at odds with some state abortion laws. Today in Texas, abortion providers can be imprisoned and forced to pay a six-figure fine.
The drug’s manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, appeared inside the courthouse in Amarillo in support of the FDA.
Outside the courthouse, organizers from the Women’s March set up their own “kangaroo court,” complete with several protesters dressed up as the jumpy marsupial, ABC News reported. Other protesters held up signs reading “Defend medication abortion” and “Not your uterus, not your decision.”
Kacsmaryk “says he doesn’t want a ‘circus-like’ atmosphere, all while behaving like a clown who treats our lives like a political game,” the organizers of the Women’s March wrote in a protest announcement. “So, we will bring the circus to him. Come in your clown makeup, and we will show the world what the Federal Court is all about here in Amarillo, a kangaroo court!”
Kacsmaryk reportedly asked attorneys last week to be aware the court received death threats and harassing phone calls with regards to the upcoming hearing, which he hoped to keep under the radar as much as possible. He did not say who made those alleged threats.
The FDA initially approved mifepristone in 2000. It is the first of a two-drug regimen that’s used to terminate a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation.
Should Kacsmaryk rule to ban the drug, access could be cut off nationwide to the most common method of abortion in the United States. In that case, doctors and clinics have said they will start using only the second drug, misoprostol.
The single-drug approach is significantly less effective, doctors said, adding that misoprostol is typically used in countries where mifepristone is illegal or unavailable.
According to the ADF’s lawsuit, filed on behalf of several anti-abortion groups and physicians, the FDA erred in determining the drug’s safety and efficacy and exceeded its regulatory authority by approving the abortion pill.
The suit also challenged several other FDA rulings that loosened restrictions on the pill, including eliminating a requirement that women pick it up in person.
If Kacsmaryk rules in ADF’s favor, federal attorneys are expected to swiftly appeal the decision and seek an emergency stay to stop it from taking effect while the case proceeds.