Joe Biden Vows to Fight Texas Judge's Mifepristone Ruling

Joe Biden has pledged his administration will fight a ruling by a district judge in Texas that suspends approval for the most commonly-used abortion pill in the U.S.

In a series of tweets late on Friday night, the U.S. President said the ruling would "prevent women across the country from accessing the medication" and that he and Kamala Harris, his vice president, were "committed to protecting a woman's right to an abortion."

Texas has already instituted a full ban on abortions in the state, following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in 2022 which overturned Roe v Wade and allowed individual states to choose their own legal status on the issue. Friday's ruling is the latest in an ongoing nationwide debate about abortion rights that the Supreme Court decision reignited.

Mifepristone has been widely available in the U.S. as one of two Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pills for medical abortions. Misoprostol is the other.

Matthew Kacsmaryk, a U.S. District Judge appointed by former president Donald Trump, ordered a hold on federal approval of mifepristone, despite the medication having federal approval since 2000.

However, the same day, U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice, a Barrack Obama appointee, ruled the opposite way in Washington, ordering authorities not to implement any changes that would restrict access to the drug. Democrats had mounted lawsuits to protect access in at least 17 states, according to the Associated Press.

The conflicting judicial decisions leave FDA approval of the drug in uncertainty and are likely to place the issue on a direct path to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Justice Department has already announced it would be appealing the Texas judge's decision and would seek a stay pending that appeal. It would also be reviewing the decision by the Washington judge.

In a statement, the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, said his department "strongly disagrees" with Kacsmaryk's decision, noting that it "overturns the FDA's expert judgment, rendered over two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective." He added that he was "committed to protecting Americans' access to legal reproductive care."

"We're going to fight it," Biden wrote of the Texas judgment, arguing it was "the next step toward an abortion ban that Republican elected officials vowed to make law."

"What's more—the court in this case has substituted its judgment for FDA, the expert agency that approves drugs," he continued. "That means if this ruling were to stand, there would be virtually no prescription approved by the FDA safe from this kind of attack."

The president said the ruling "doesn't just affect women in Texas," noting that it would bar FDA approval across the country. Biden also said Congress "must restore the protections of Roe v. Wade."

Kacsmaryk signed an injunction directing the FDA to stay mifepristone's approval while a lawsuit challenging use of the drug remains ongoing. The order gave the federal government seven days to appeal.

It appears to be the first time a single judge has overruled a decision by the FDA, and as such there is no legal precedent for the situation. Abortion providers have expressed outrage at the ruling, and have pledged to continue dispensing the pill while litigation is ongoing.

Democrat representative and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said "personal and serious decisions" around abortion care "must be made by women guided by faith and family—not by politicians or activist judges."

Meanwhile, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN she thought the Biden administration "should ignore this ruling." The Democratic representative from New York added that the courts "rely on the legitimacy of their rulings" and claimed that "what they are currently doing is engaged in an unprecedented and dramatic erosion of [that] legitimacy."

Faith-based organization, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which brought the Texas lawsuit, described the order as a "major victory."

In a statement, Erik Baptist, ADF's senior counsel in the case, claimed the FDA "never had the authority to approve these hazardous drugs" and that it was "high time the agency is held accountable for its reckless actions."

When asked to comment, an FDA spokesperson told Newsweek it too was appealing the decision, and said that its approval of the pill was "based on a comprehensive review of the scientific evidence available and determined that it was safe and effective for its indicated use."

"FDA stands behind its determination that mifepristone is safe and effective under its approved conditions of use for medical termination of early pregnancy, and believes patients should have access to FDA-approved medications that FDA has determined to be safe and effective," they added.

Meanwhile, Jeanne Mancini, president of the anti-abortion March for Life, told AP on Friday: "The court's decision today is a major step forward for women and girls whose health and safety have been jeopardized for decades by the FDA's rushed, flawed and politicized approval."

Update 04/08/23, 4:41 a.m. ET: This article was updated with further details.

Update 04/08/23, 5:48 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comments from Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jeanne Mancini.

Update 04/08/23, 8:19 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from an FDA spokesperson.