Trump-appointed judge could ban abortion pills nationwide
Anti-LGBTQ Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas is expected to soon rule on a consequential case that could outlaw the use of medication for abortions.
A decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected by the end of this month. More than half of all abortions in the U.S.
are performed with medications, usually mifepristone in combination with misoprostol, up until the 10th week of pregnancy. The plaintiffs — represented by the anti-LGBTQ Alliance Defending Freedom, which has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — contend that the FDA overextended its authority by approving mifepristone more than 20 years ago.
The lawsuit is “unprecedented,” the Biden administration has said. The American Civil Liberties Union agreed, writing that “in any rational universe” it would be “laughed out of court on multiple grounds.” According to the ACLU, “Mifepristone was approved more than two decades ago and has been used by millions of people for early abortion care and to treat miscarriages.
