Matthew Kacsmaryk, a judge appointed by former President Donald Trump, is expected to rule soon whether to nationally outlaw the abortion medication Mifepristone, effectively overturning the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 23-year-old approval of the drug.
The lawsuit against the drug, filed by the right-wing Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), disingenuously claims that the FDA carelessly risked patients lives when it approved the drug in 2000.
On the contrary, only 24 people taking the drug died from 2000 to 2018 (out of its estimated 3.7 million users). As such, it’s safer than penicillin, Tylenol, and actual childbirth, which kills 700 U.S. women a year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The ADF likely chose to file their case in Kacsmaryk’s Texas-based courtroom because he’s known as a right-wing Christian activist who happily issues wide-ranging pro-conservative rulings. He recently ruled that Texas teens have no right to access abortion without parental consent.
The ADF’s lawsuit also follows the FDA’s recent approval of pharmacies to distribute the drug without a doctor’s visit. Medications like Mifepristone are now used for over half of all abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, something that happened in response to several conservative states banning clinical abortions.
If Kacsmaryk rules against the drug, it would outlaw the drug even in states where abortion remains legal.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and its rights to legalized abortion in June 2022, conservative politicians said they wanted to return the issue of abortion to individualized states. However, voters ever since have consistently rejected attempts to further restrict abortion access.
Now, it seems conservatives are moving from letting states decide to letting one un-elected judge decide for the entire country.
This week, four senators introduced a bill to codify abrtion rights and contraceptive access into law. The bill, named the Reproductive Freedom for All Act, was introduced by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).
The bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-led House.