Judge Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has written critically about Roe v. Wade, said that court staff faced death threats, and the measure was intended to keep court proceedings safe. Judge in abortion pill case sought to delay announcement of hearing:
A photo provided by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee shows Trump nominee Matthew Kacsmaryk during the nomination hearing to the federal judiciary at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Dec. 13, 2017. (U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary via The New Yo
One person familiar with the case, which is being heard in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, said such steps were “very irregular,” especially for a case of intense public interest.Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has written critically about Roe v.
At the hearing, lawyers representing the plaintiffs, the FDA and a manufacturer of mifepristone will present arguments for and against an injunction. It is unclear if the judge will decide whether to issue an order that day or sometime later.Such an order would be unprecedented, legal experts say, and — if higher courts were to allow an injunction to stand — would make it harder for patients to get abortions in states where abortion is legal, not just in those trying to restrict it.
On Friday, the public court record showed subtle signs that something unusual had occurred. That morning, the first new entry in 10 days was added to the case’s docket: a notice of appearance for a Justice Department lawyer, a standard document usually added to a case in advance of an upcoming proceeding, but the docket did not show any proceeding.
The lawsuit claims that the FDA did not adequately review the scientific evidence or follow proper protocols when it approved mifepristone in 2000 and that it has since ignored safety risks of the medication. The lead plaintiff, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, was incorporated in August in Amarillo, shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Kacsmaryk is the only federal judge covering the Amarillo division in the court’s Northern District.
If legal access to mifepristone is blocked, some abortion providers plan to provide only the second abortion medication, misoprostol, which is used safely on its own in many countries. Misoprostol, which is approved for other medical uses, causes contractions similar to a miscarriage and is considered slightly less effective on its own than in combination with mifepristone and more prone to cause side effects such as nausea.
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