Topline
The Department of Justice and the distributor of a major abortion pill both asked the Supreme Court on Friday to block a Trump-appointed federal judge’s controversial ruling last week that could restrict women’s access to mifepristone nationwide, with the drugmaker arguing it would be “irreparably harmed” if the ruling goes into effect.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the DOJ will challenge a controversial ruling that could limit … [+]
Key Facts
Danco Laboratories, the maker of Mifeprex—the brand name of the drug mifepristone—urged the 6-3 conservative court to put a hold on the decision, saying if the ruling goes into effect, it would severely impair the company and make it “unable to both conduct its business nationwide and comply with its legal obligations.”
The company’s request comes one week after U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a ruling to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the pill—which the FDA approved in 2000—while giving the Biden Administration time to appeal.
White House officials and abortion rights groups have heavily criticized the ruling, with the Department of Justice filing an emergency stay on Monday asking a federal appeals court to block Kacsmaryk’s order.
In a separate request for relief on Friday, the Justice Department also asked the Supreme Court for a stay on the order, after a Texas-based appeals court on Wednesday blocked some of Kacsmaryk’s ruling but allowed some provisions to stand, including one restricting women from using the pill after seven weeks of pregnancy.
Danco Laboratories and its attorney did not immediately respond to a Forbes inquiry, though its attorney told CNBC the company will not be able to legally market or sell mifepristone without a series of FDA regulatory actions to implement the appeal court’s decision.
Tangent
Mifeprex is the only drug Danco distributes, meaning a nationwide ban would likely be devastating to the New York-based company.
Key Background
Abortion rights have been cast into doubt since the Supreme Court’s monumental decision last June to overturn Roe v. Wade, leaving women’s access to the procedure up to individual states. Since then, 15 states have passed laws either restricting abortions outright or at six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy (before many women know they’re pregnant), including Florida, which passed into law a six-week ban Thursday night—other state-level bans are stuck in court, while four other states have bans at 12 weeks or later. Kacsmaryk’s ruling stems from a lawsuit filed in November by anti-abortion rights groups that seeks to revoke the FDA’s approval of both mifepristone and misoprostol, an abortion pill often used in combination with mifepristone. Plaintiffs in the case claim the FDA did not have authority to approve the pills because it did so using an accelerated approval process reserved for “serious or life threatening” diseases—the DOJ, in turn, argued those plaintiffs lack legal standing because they don’t personally take or prescribe the pills. Although the ruling has been celebrated by anti-abortions groups and several major Republicans including former Vice President Mike Pence, it’s been heavily criticized by White House officials. President Joe Biden pledged to fight it last Saturday, saying the ruling would take away women’s “basic freedoms,” while the Justice Department argued it would “thwart” the FDA’s judgment and “severely harm women.”
What We Don’t Know
Just minutes after Kacsmaryk’s order, federal Judge Thomas Rice in Washington state issued a contradictory ruling, barring the FDA from making changes to the “status quo and rights” of the availability of mifepristone—though his ruling only applies to the 17 states and Washington D.C. that sued to expand access to the abortion pill.
Further Reading
DOJ Asks Appeals Court To Keep Abortion Pill Mifepristone On The Market (Forbes)
Justice Department Asks Supreme Court To Reverse Abortion Pill Limitations (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/04/14/doj-request-supreme-court-block-abortion-drug-ban/