Pritzker slams Texas judge's decision halting FDA approval of abortion pill mifepristone
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker slammed a Texas federal judge's decision limiting access to the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide.
Pritzker noted that a decision in a separate case by a federal judge in Washington state nvolving mifepristone that preliminarily blocks the Biden administration from altering the status quo as it relates to the availability of the drug. The two competing orders sets up a high-stakes showdown likely to land before the Supreme Court.
The governor reaffirmed the commitment to reproductive rights and health care in Illinois.
"Let me be clear: thanks to the Washington decision, nothing has changed in Illinois. But the Texas court has issued a dangerous decision. For more than 22 years, the FDA has made clear that medication abortion is a safe, accessible way for millions of people to make choices about their own bodies," Pritzker said in a news release. "But today, a federal judge in Texas declared – against all precedent and science– that doctors have been doing their job wrong for decades.
"Despite these attacks, reproductive rights are enshrined in Illinois law and will stay that way," Pritzker continued. "This ruling is a clear and concerted effort by anti-abortion, far-right activists and politicians to dismantle sexual and reproductive health care nationwide. We will not let them win."
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton also slammed the Texas decision and reiterated that abortion rights are protected in Illinois .
"Attempts to block the rights of anyone threatens the freedom of everyone. The ruling out of Texas aims to challenge a woman's liberty and the right to make choices for oneself; We cannot and will not let this happen," Stratton said in the news release. "Abortion is essential healthcare, and you can still exercise this right in Illinois. We will continue to ensure that our state will always be a partner in the fight and an oasis for reproductive justice."
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul also emphasized that abortion remains protected in Illinois. He released this statement:
"The federal court's ruling in Washington means that in the state of Illinois, access to mifepristone is protected. Illinois is proud to have been among the 18 states to proactively file a lawsuit to preserve access to mifepristone for patients in Illinois. Today's order preserves that access notwithstanding the legally-unsound decision made by a single judge in Texas.
"For more than 23 years, mifepristone, which is half of a two-drug medication abortion regimen, has been safely and effectively used by millions of patients. Patients in Illinois will be able to continue to have access to mifepristone as a method of abortion and miscarriage management while our lawsuit continues.
"Let me also be clear: Abortion remains safe and legal in Illinois. The providers who work every day to meet the needs of their patients and provide quality reproductive health care have my appreciation and support. I encourage anyone who needs an abortion to discuss abortion care options, including medication abortion, with a medical provider. I will continue to fight to protect access to medication abortion and for the right of women – in Illinois and beyond our borders – to make their own reproductive health decisions. While we are reviewing the overall effects of these respective rulings, we will press forward to preserve continued access to safe, legal abortion in Illinois."
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) issued a statement decrying the Texas decision:
"Mifepristone was approved by the FDA 20 years ago after a rigorous scientific and legal process, but access to this critical medication that millions of Americans rely on was stripped away with a stroke of a pen by a single person who was handpicked by Republican extremists dead-set on a nationwide abortion ban.
"If one judge in Texas can make a political decision that takes this off the shelves, what's to stop another judge somewhere else from doing the same thing to insulin or any other prescription drug?
"I'm glad the Biden Administration is already appealing this horrific ruling, because women across the nation deserve full access to the medication and healthcare that they need, when they need it. Full stop."
In a 67-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas said the FDA's two-decade-old approval violated a federal rule that allow for accelerated approval for certain drugs and, along with subsequent actions by the agency, was unlawful. He put his decision on hold for seven days to allow for the Biden administration to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. That appeal happened late Friday.
"The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the decision of the District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA and will be appealing the court's decision and seeking a stay pending appeal," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday evening. "Today's decision overturns the FDA's expert judgment, rendered over two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective."
Kacsmaryk's injunction stopped short of withdrawing or suspending the FDA's approval of mifepristone, as a group of anti-abortion rights medical associations had asked him to do. Such a move from Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump, likely would have disrupted access to the drug for millions of women nationwide, including in states where abortion is legal.
But it does further throw into chaos abortion access nationwide amid a legal landscape that has been upended since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade last June. At least a dozen states have enacted near-total bans on the procedure or imposed tighter restrictions in the wake of the decision to unwind the right to an abortion under the U.S. Constitution.
The Washington state ruling came on the heels of the Texas ruling. The two competing orders sets up a high-stakes showdown likely to land before the Supreme Court.
The FDA approved mifepristone more than 20 years ago, and the drug is taken together with a second medicine, misoprostol, to terminate a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation. Since then, the agency has made several changes to the rules surrounding the abortion pill, including approving a generic version of mifepristone in 2019 and lifting a requirement that the pills be dispensed in-person in 2021, which allowed the drug to be prescribed by a provider during telemedicine appointments and sent by mail.
But it wasn't until last November — 22 years after the FDA's approval of the abortion pills — that a group of physicians and medical associations filed a lawsuit seeking to undo the agency's approval of mifepristone. The lawsuit was filed in the federal district court in Amarillo, where only one judge, Kacsmaryk, is assigned cases.