DOJ Files Appeal In Texas Ruling To Ban Abortion Pills

The Huffington Post reports:

The Department of Justice filed an immediate appeal following a Texas federal judge’s shocking decision Friday to pull the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortion.

The Justice Department appealed directly to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Friday night, only a few hours after the initial ruling.

Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group, filed the suit in November in a federal court in Amarillo, Texas, arguing that the FDA went beyond its authority 22 years ago and fast-tracked the approval of mifepristone.

From Attorney General Merrick Garland:

The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the decision of the District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA and will be appealing the court’s decision and seeking a stay pending appeal.

Today’s decision overturns the FDA’s expert judgment, rendered over two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective. The Department will continue to defend the FDA’s decision. The Department is committed to protecting Americans’ access to legal reproductive care.

As most of you probably know, the Alliance Defending Freedom is also behind many of the lawsuits seeking to restrict or repeal LGBTQ rights. In 2003, they filed a brief in the historic Lawrence v Texas Supreme Court case in which they argued that homosexuality should remain criminalized.