Yes, it's about abortion, but just take abortion out of it (Mifepristone is also used to treat brain tumor, fibroids and to help induce labor) and ... it's crazy for a Judge to intervene in a drug that has been approved for 23 years with ample safety records. This is beyond legislating from the bench. Hopefully, the 5th US Circuit Court strikes down this nonsense. Access to abortion pill in limbo after competing rulings | AP News AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Access to the most commonly used method of abortion in the U.S. plunged into uncertainty Friday following conflicting court rulings over the legality of the abortion medication mifepristone that has been widely available for more than 20 years. For now, the drug the Food and Drug Administration approved in 2000 appeared to remain at least immediately available in the wake of two separate rulings that were issued in quick succession by federal judges in Texas and Washington. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, ordered a hold on federal approval of mifepristone in a decision that overruled decades of scientific approval. But that decision came at nearly the same time that U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice, an Obama appointee, essentially ordered the opposite and directed U.S. authorities not to make any changes that would restrict access to the drug in at least 17 states where Democrats sued in an effort to protect availability. The extraordinary timing of the competing orders revealed the high stakes surrounding the drug nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and curtailed access to abortion across the country. President Joe Biden said his administration would fight the Texas ruling. The whiplash of the conflicting decisions is likely to put the issue on an accelerated path to the Supreme Court. “FDA is under one order that says you can do nothing and another that says in seven days I’m going to require you to vacate the approval of mifepristone,” said Glenn Cohen of Harvard Law School. Abortion providers slammed the Texas ruling, including Whole Woman’s Health, which operates six clinics in five states and said it would continue to dispense mifepristone in person and by mail over the next week as they review the rulings. The abortion drug has been widely used in the U.S. since securing FDA approval and there is essentially no precedent for a lone judge overruling the medical decisions of the Food and Drug Administration. Mifepristone is one of two drugs used for medication abortion in the United States, along with misoprostol, which is also used to treat other medical conditions. Kacsmaryk signed an injunction directing the FDA to stay mifepristone’s approval while a lawsuit challenging the safety and approval of the drug continues. His 67-page order gave the government seven days to appeal. “The Court in this case has substituted its judgment for FDA, the expert agency that approves drugs,” Biden said. “If this ruling were to stand, then there will be virtually no prescription, approved by the FDA, that would be safe from these kinds of political, ideological attacks.” ... Legal experts warned that the ruling could upend decades of precedent, setting the stage for political groups to overturn other FDA approvals of controversial drugs and vaccines. “This has never happened before in history — it’s a huge deal,” said Greer Donley, a professor specializing in reproductive health care at the University of Pittsburgh Law School. “You have a federal judge who has zero scientific background second guessing every scientific decision that the FDA made.”
How does a single judge have the ability to effect something of this magnitude? So some random partisan hack judge in Mississippi or Alabama could also ban medications nationwide?
the left has been using nationwide injunctions by single judges for a long time. Clarence Thomas has been ringing the alarm about them.
He's a federal judge who suspended an FDA-approved drug. Since the drug cannot be prescribed without FDA approval, he was able to suspend it nationwide. This is why the power to appoint and approve non-extreme judges is so important. Trump and the GOP Congress did a number on the nation by installing partisan hacks on the federal bench.
Looks like a judge in DC just ruled the complete opposite, so what now? Appeal? Off to Uncle Thomas who’s been bought and the rest of the Supreme Court?
Yes, it has always been an appeal independent of the DC judge ruling. If the 5th Circuit Court doesn't overturn the TX judge's decision, the case will eventually reach the Supreme Court, leaving the FDA uncertain about how to proceed due to conflicting rulings. It's unclear what will happen with the drug in that scenario. Perhaps the FDA will choose not to take any action, and we'll return to the status quo until the Supreme Court makes its ruling.
As an aside, it has always been the case that once Roe was overturned, there will be some highly motivated individuals (often referred to as religious zealots) who will push for a nationwide ban on all abortions, starting from conception. Their creativity and determination to achieve this goal is feasible until abortion rights are once again protected by laws. This is just one of many attempts that will be made until all abortion is no longer legal in the US.
She is wrong. She's not, but if she wants to urge insurrection, go for it and join the crazy right. Can you provide any example of another judge issuing a nationwide injunction on an FDA approved drug, taking it off the market?
