Two hundred and forty Democratic and independent members of Congress filed an amicus brief on Tuesday, urging an appeals court to block a Texas judge’s ruling that would stop the prescription and distribution of the abortion drug mifepristone.
The group includes 50 senators and 190 House members, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) signed the brief as well.
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Much of the brief defends mifepristone specifically, but it also focuses on defending abortion in general.
“Amici believe that the district court’s stay of FDA’s September 28, 2000 Approval of mifepristone and other challenged agency actions has no basis in law, threatens the Congressionally mandated drug approval process, and poses a serious health risk to pregnant individuals by making abortion more difficult to access— when access has already been seriously eroded in the aftermath of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” the filing stated. “Accordingly, Amici respectfully urge this Court to grant emergency relief from the district court’s stay.”
The filing stresses its inclusion of transgender people who want an abortion, writing that approximately 22 million women of childbearing age are now without access to abortion, “in addition to other people who may not identify as women but are capable of becoming pregnant and may need an abortion.”
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The filing spent much of its conclusion stressing that the blocking of the drug threatens to especially harm “Black women — and exacerbate an already grave Black maternal health crisis.”
The 65-page brief was filed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday.
