Trump administration demands court to reject abortion drug case: NPR

The Justice Department SEALs saw it at a press conference in Memphis, Tennessee on Thursday, December 5, 2024.

George Walker IV/AP

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George Walker IV/AP

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration asked a judge on Monday to file lawsuits in three Republican-led states seeking to cut off the telemedicine abortion drug mifepristone.

Justice Department lawyers retained the legal lessons drawn by the Biden administration, although they did not directly consider the potential problems of using the most common abortion methods in the country.

Instead, the government argues that states have no legal rights and no right to file lawsuits.

“States may freely file claims in areas where appropriate, but the states' claims must be dismissed or transferred under the mandatory commander of the venue regulations,” the federal government lawyer wrote.

On the map, telemedicine providers in Massachusetts send pills to people living in states that prohibit or restrict abortions. Massachusetts Drug Abortion Visit Program

The lawsuit in Idaho, Kansas and Missouri holds that the Food and Drug Administration should retreat to miffetone. They filed a complaint after the Supreme Court retained access to Mifiscer last year. They hope that the FDA bans telemedicine prescription meter non-certificate certificates, requires three office visits, and limits pregnancy when used.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who considered the case in Texas's Trump nominee, had ruled that he had ruled to stop approving the drug.

Kacsmaryk's initial ruling was a lawsuit filed by anti-abortion groups. It was narrowed down by the Court of Appeal and then abandoned by the Supreme Court, which found that the plaintiff lacked the legal right to file a lawsuit.

The three states later resumed cases, believing they do have legal status because using the drug would undermine their abortion laws.

But Justice Department lawyers say states cannot just piggyback on earlier lawsuits, which is a way to hear the case in Texas.

Attorney Daniel Schwei wrote that there is nothing to stop the state from filing lawsuits, but the venue must be linked to the claims filed.

Schwei wrote that states were challenging except when the U.S. FDA first relaxed restrictions on mifactogenic in 2016. That's past Sue's six-year time limit, he said.

Miscarriage is prohibited at all stages of pregnancy in Idaho. Missouri has a strict ban, but clinics recently started offering abortions again after voters approved a new constitutional amendment for reproductive rights. In Kansas, abortion is usually legal, and in Kansas, voters rejected an anti-abortion voting measure in 2022, although the state does have age restrictions.

The waiting room for the Alamo Women's Reproductive Service overturned Roev in the Supreme Court. Wade's day was cleared and an illegal abortion was performed in Texas.

Trump told Time in December that he would not limit the chances of receiving abortion drugs. During the campaign, it said abortion was a problem for the states and stressed that he appointed Supreme Court justices, who were in the majority when they strike the nationwide abortion rights in 2022.

“I always think abortion is a tragedy,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said repeatedly during his first confirmation hearing in January.

Since the Supreme Court ruling overturned Roev. Since Wade, mifepristone has been commonly used in combination with a second drug abortion, which is more than three-fifths of all abortions.