The Justice Department asked a federal judge in Washington to clarify the agency’s duties under his Friday order to maintain abortion drug availability in 17 states, saying it’s in “significant tension” with a Texas federal judge’s ruling suspending the approval of mifepristone.
“The result of that order appears to be in significant tension with this Court’s order prohibiting FDA from ‘altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone’ in Plaintiff States,” attorneys for the DOJ wrote in a five-page court filing Monday.
TEXAS JUDGE SUSPENDS FDA APPROVAL OF MAJOR ABORTION PILL
The DOJ’s request further presumed the lack of clarity was due to the rulings being “issued less than 20 minutes apart.”
Texas-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk sided with anti-abortion groups on Friday, ruling that the Food and Drug Administration’s decades-old approval of mifepristone, the first of two abortion-inducing drugs used to terminate a pregnancy through 10 weeks, should be suspended. The decision gave the Biden administration a week to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and will not go into effect until then.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Soon after Kacsmaryk’s ruling, a federal judge in Washington state issued a ruling directly contradicting it. The Washington ruling ordered the FDA to make no changes to the availability of the drug.
Lawyers for the DOJ want the judge in Washington to clarify the obligations under his ruling in the event that the Texas case stays the FDA approval of the drug.
