A federal judge in Texas ruled to reverse the Food and Drug Administration’s decades long approval of mifepristone—a pill used in abortions and to manage miscarriages—in what Northeastern legal experts describe as yet another instance of “norm-shattering” by a highly politicized judiciary.
The decision was made by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed judge in Texas. An hour later, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice, an Obama-appointed judge in Washington state, issued a separate ruling prohibiting the FDA from pulling the drug.
The conflicting decisions now leave the Biden administration and the federal agency in limbo.
Some Democratic lawmakers have urged President Joe Biden to simply ignore Kacsmaryk’s finding, arguing that the FDA has the authority to do so, while highlighting the “devastating” consequences of…
