(NRLC) On Thursday U.S. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas issued a ruling that permits the attorneys general of Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri to continue litigating the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA.
The original plaintiffs–the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, composed of four national medical associations, four doctors, and the Alliance Defending Freedom–dropped their case after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2024 they lacked the necessary legal standing. At that juncture the three states requested to pursue the case in federal court in Amarillo, Texas.
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Litigation began in 2022
The Alliance sued the FDA in 2022, “maintaining that the agency overstepped its authority, first in approving the abortion drug, and again in waiving safety guidelines on the procedure,” according to Kim Schwartz of Texas Right to Life.
The Alliance asked that mifepristone be pulled from the market altogether. In his April 7, 2023, decision Judge Kacsmaryk “agreed with the challengers and suspended both that approval and the later changes to the conditions on the use of the drug – such as allowing the drug to be used through the 10th week of pregnancy, rather than the 7th, and allowing health-care providers who are not physicians to prescribe the drug,” according to Amy Howe.
“But although the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld Kacsmaryk’s rollback of the later changes to conditions on the use of the drug, it ruled that the challengers’ efforts to invalidate the FDA’s initial approval of the drug came too late.”
Worth noting were the comments of Judge Ho, who was part of the 5th circuit court of appeals panel. He wrote
By the applicant’s own admission, the FDA used an unlawful procedure when it approved mifepristone. And the agency’s later regulations are likewise invalid—both under the APA as the majority outlines, and under the Comstock Act as well. In sum, the regulations are “not in accordance with law” and therefore must be set aside. Accordingly, we should affirm.
His biting conclusion?
Scientists have contributed an enormous amount to improving our lives. But scientists are human beings just like the rest of us. They’re not perfect. None of us are. We all make mistakes. And the F.D.A. has made plenty.
Tweet This: Scientists are human beings just like the rest of us. They’re not perfect. None of us are. We all make mistakes. And the FDA has made plenty
Basis for standing
Brendan Pierson and Nate Raymond report that Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri
have argued they have standing to sue because their Medicaid health insurance programs will likely have to pay to treat patients who have suffered complications from using mifepristone. They have also said they should be allowed to remain in Texas even without the original plaintiffs because it would be inefficient to send the case to another court after nearly more than two years of litigation.
Mifepristone is used in combination with misoprostol, a prostaglandin, to cause an abortion. Mifepristone blocks progesterone, leading to the death of the unborn baby, while the second drug, misoprostol, causes powerful, painful uterine contractions to expel the dead or dying baby.
FDA records include more than two dozen deaths and thousands of complications associated with the use of the mifepristone/misoprostol chemical abortion method. Thousands of “adverse events” are on record with the FDA and include serious infections, severe hemorrhaging, and the rupture of previously undiscovered ectopic pregnancies.
Editor's note: This article was published by National Right to Life News and is reprinted with permission.
