Kamala Harris and Biden TORCH Trump-Appointed Judge’s Abortion Pill Decision — Vow To ‘Fight’

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris torched the abortion pill ruling by a Texas Judge appointed by ex-President Donald Trump, vowing to “fight” the decision.

Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. Northern District of Texas ruled Friday to suspend FDA approval of mifepristone, a drug used to perform medication abortions, effective one week hence in order to allow time for an appeal. The ruling has generated blistering criticism and backlash. The judge was appointed by Trump in 2017.

But another ruling Friday cuts the opposite way. Judge Thomas Owen Rice of the U.S. District for the Eastern District of Washington — who was appointed by then-President Barack Obama — issued a ruling prohibiting the Food and Drug Administration from  “altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone,” which is protected in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

President Biden tore into the Texas decision in a lengthy statement emailed to Mediaite Friday night:

Statement from President Joe Biden on Decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA

Today a single federal district judge in Texas ruled that a prescription medication that has been available for more than 22 years, approved by the FDA and used safely and effectively by millions of women here and around the world, should no longer be approved in the United States. The Court in this case has substituted its judgment for FDA, the expert agency that approves drugs. If this ruling were to stand, then there will be virtually no prescription, approved by the FDA, that would be safe from these kinds of political, ideological attacks.

The prescription medication in question in this case is used for medication abortion, and medication abortion accounts for over half the abortions in America. The lawsuit, and this ruling, is another unprecedented step in taking away basic freedoms from women and putting their health at risk. This does not just affect women in Texas – if it stands, it would prevent women in every state from accessing the medication, regardless of whether abortion is legal in a state. It is the next big step toward the national ban on abortion that Republican elected officials have vowed to make law in America.

My Administration will fight this ruling. The Department of Justice has already filed an appeal and will seek an immediate stay of the decision. But let’s be clear – the only way to stop those who are committed to taking away women’s rights and freedoms in every state is to elect a Congress who will pass a law restoring Roe versus Wade. Vice President Harris and I will continue to lead the fight to protect a woman’s right to an abortion, and to make her own decisions about her own health. That is our commitment.

And VP Harris spoke with reporters briefly when she departed Nashville Friday evening, and similarly promised to fight:

So the district court in the abortion medication decision came down today. I haven’t read it yet, so I’m going to do an analysis of it. But as a general matter, I’ll say that there is no question that the President and I are going to stand with the women of America and do everything we can to ensure that women have the ability to make decisions about their healthcare, their reproductive healthcare, in — in a manner that is — is what they need, and they decide that, not their government.

I’ll also say about this case, as a general matter, that it is — it is contrary to what makes for good public health policy to allow courts and politicians to tell the FDA what it should do.

This is a drug that the FDA approved as safe 20 years ago and has been proven to be safe for 20 years. So this is a dangerous precedent, and I’ll have more to say after I review the decision in its entirety.

Later in the evening, VP Harris went into more detail in an email statement:

Statement from Vice President Harris on Decision in
Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA

Today’s unprecedented decision threatens the rights of women nationwide to make decisions about their health care and the ability to access medication prescribed to them by their doctors. Simply put: this decision undermines the FDA’s ability to approve safe and effective medications—from chemotherapy drugs, to asthma medicine, to blood pressure pills, to insulin—based on science, not politics. This decision threatens the rights of Americans across the country, who can look in their medicine cabinets and find medication prescribed by a doctor because the FDA engaged in a process to determine the efficacy and safety of that medication.

At the same time as the court in Texas issued the decision to try to restrict access to FDA-approved medication, a court in Washington state reached a different conclusion.

Each person in our nation should have the right to access safe and effective medication which has been approved by the FDA. In the face of attacks on a woman’s right to access an abortion, our Administration will continue to fight to protect reproductive freedom and the ability of all Americans to make health care decisions with their doctors free from political interference.

Watch above via C-SPAN.