Trump admin seeks dismissal of abortion pill access suit

The Trump administration on Monday asked a judge to toss out a lawsuit from three GOPled states seeking to cut off telehealth access to abortion medication mifepristone Justice Department attorneys stayed the legal course charted by Biden administration though they didnt directly weigh in on the underlying issue of access to the drug thats part of the nations most common method of abortion Rather the government argued the states dont have the legal right or standing to sueThe states are free to pursue their claims in a district where venue is proper but the states claims before this court must be dismissed or transferred pursuant to the venue statutes mandatory command federal government attorneys wroteThe lawsuit from Idaho Kansas and Missouri argues that Food and Drug Administration should roll back access to mifepristone They filed their complaint after the Supreme Court preserved access to mifepristone last year They want the FDA to prohibit telehealth prescriptions for mifepristone require three inoffice visits and restrict the point in a pregnancy when it can be usedThe case is being considered by US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas a Trump nominee who once ruled in favor of halting approval for the drug Kacsmaryks original ruling came in a lawsuit filed by antiabortion groups It was narrowed by an appeals court before being tossed out by the Supreme Court which found the plaintiffs lacked the legal right to sueThe three states later moved to revive the case arguing they did have legal standing because access to the drug undermined their abortion laws But the Department of Justice attorneys said the states cant just piggyback on the earlier lawsuit as a way to keep the case in Texas Nothing is stopping the states from filing the lawsuit someplace else attorney Daniel Schwei wrote but the venue has to have some connection to the claims being madeBesides Schwei wrote the states are challenging actions the FDA took in 2016 when it first loosened restrictions on mifeprostone Thats well past the sixyear time limit to sue he said Abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy in Idaho Missouri had a strict ban but clinics recently began offering abortions again after voters approved a new constitutional amendment for reproductive rights Abortion is generally legal up to 22 weeks in Kansas where voters rejected an antiabortion ballot measure in 2022 though the state does have age restrictionsTrump told Time magazine in December he would not restrict access to abortion medication On the campaign trail said abortion is an issue for the states and stressed that he appointed justices to the Supreme Court who were in the majority when striking down the national right to abortion in 2022 Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jrs stance on abortion seems to have shifted at times drawing criticism from both abortion rights advocates and antiabortion forces During his first confirmation hearing in January he repeatedly said I have always believed abortion is a tragedy when pressed about his viewsMifepristone is usually used in combination with a second drug for medication abortion which has accounted for more than threefifths of all abortions in the US since the Supreme Courts ruling overturning Roe v WadeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoeveratOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params