Federal judge in Amarillo to rule on potential abortion pill ban 'as soon as possible'
AMARILLO (CBSNewsTexas.com) — After a four-hour long hearing Wednesday, a federal judge in Amarillo is considering whether to restrict the sale of an abortion pill or ban it altogether.
District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said he would issue a ruling "as soon as possible."
This is all part of a civil lawsuit filed last November against the FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and others by the Alliance For Hippocratic Medicine, which represents anti-abortion rights organizations and doctors.
Anti-abortion rights groups say the drug mifepristone is unsafe and shouldn't be sold.
Abortion-rights groups insist it is safe and point to the fact that the FDA approved it 23 years ago.
A court has never removed a drug on the market for many years after it was approved by the FDA.
During a Zoom interview with reporters Wednesday afternoon, abortion-rights advocate and former Democratic state Senator Wendy Davis sharply criticized the civil lawsuit.
"It should be a wake-up call and a true gut check for all of us," she said. "These anti-abortion zealots are not going to stop at anything until they have removed the right to bodily autonomy and access to reproductive healthcare by people in every state in this country."
The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine said the Biden administration's policy allowing the distribution of the drug through the mail is wrong and they want the drug banned nationwide.
In an interview with CBS News Texas Wednesday, Jonathan Saenz, president of the conservative group Texas Values, said, "If the Biden administration wants to continue to push for abortion on demand, wants to sidestep the process, wants to ignore legitimate concerns women and young ladies are going to suffer, that's something we don't want to see, particularly in the state of Texas."
On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Texas reporters and rejected the lawsuit calling it, "An unprecedented attack on medication... These attacks are not only an attack on a woman's fundamental freedom to make decisions about her own body, but it fundamentally is also an attack on the scientific process that is crucial for public health."
Under Texas law, abortion pills can't be distributed through the mail and women aren't allowed to use it past their seventh week of pregnancy.
Attorney General Ken Paxton has recently sent letters to CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons Companies, and Costco warning them not to send the drugs through the mail.
But the FDA has allowed sales through the mail for women through their tenth week of pregnancy.
CBS News Texas asked U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra about this issue during a stop in Dallas February 8. "We will fight tooth and nail to make sure whether in court, in Congress, or in public opinion we make it clear every American, every woman in this country has the right to access to healthcare."
Saenz said, "Texas is in the middle of its legislative session. Other states are as well. We should be able to look at this on our own and decide what's best, not having the federal government dictate these issues."
Most abortions in Texas are through medication.
Records by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission show between January and October of last year, there were 17,203 abortions in the state.
Of those, 11,719 were through medication.
The number of abortions plummeted after the new state law banning most abortions went into effect in August.
The state law went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
