Fifth Circuit Judges Weigh Arguments in Abortion Pill Case
If the initial judge’s ruling is upheld, access to medication abortion would be upended in states where abortion is legal, not just in states where bans and restrictions are in force. The F.D.A.’s regulatory authority over other drugs could be challenged with other lawsuits, and pharmaceutical companies say that uncertainty about the F.D.A.’s role could chill drug development in the United States.
The arguments included whether the parties who brought the suit — a coalition of organizations and doctors who oppose abortion and do not prescribe the pill — could show they would suffer real harm if the medication continued to be available and whether they waited too long to challenge the approval of mifepristone, the first pill in a two-drug regimen.
The plaintiffs claim that mifepristone is unsafe and that the F.D.A. did not follow proper regulatory protocols in approving it in 2000 — contentions that the government strongly disputes, citing years of research and other support for the agency’s actions.
The panel, composed of two appointees by President Donald J. Trump, Judges James C. Ho and Cory T. Wilson, and a George W. Bush appointee, Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, did not issue a decision at the hearing on Wednesday. That will come later, though there is no deadline for the court to decide. Any decision is likely to be appealed, first to the full appellate court and then to the Supreme Court.
In a preliminary ruling in April, Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas, a Trump appointee who is a longtime opponent of abortion, suspended the F.D.A.’s approval of the drug.
Source: The New York Times
