WASHINGTON— Today, Congressman James P. McGovern, Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and member of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, announced that he has joined an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit forcefully challenging the recent ruling of a Trump-appointed federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that would severely restrict access to Mifepristone— a safe, effective medication for the termination of pregnancy.
“This week’s reckless decision by a rogue, Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas is yet another example of how GOP leaders are lying about abortion. They are not content with overturning Roe v. Wade and sending this question back to the states—they want to continue to take away basic freedoms from women, put their health at risk, and ban abortion nationwide,” said Congressman McGovern. “As a member of the Pro-Choice Caucus, I’m proud to be leading the fight to protect abortion access by signing onto this amicus brief in support of the Biden administration’s appeal. I’m grateful that here in Massachusetts, Governor Healy and Lieutenant Governor Driscoll remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to an abortion. And I look forward to the decision in this case being aggressively challenged so that every American has the freedom to make their own healthcare decisions about their own bodies.”
The judge’s ruling in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA is the latest in a series of GOP attempts to ban abortion nationwide. As a result of the Supreme Court’s devastating decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade, nearly 22 million women live in states where abortion is now unavailable. If left to stand, the ruling would only compound this crisis by further restricting access to medication abortion nationwide and compromising FDA’s authority to regulate drugs in the future. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved mifepristone as safe and effective in 2000, and since then, the safe use of mifepristone has been repeatedly validated by FDA, as well as the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Forcing the FDA to withdraw approval of mifepristone based on ideology rather than science undermines the gold standard of drug approval in the United States and erodes public confidence in FDA’s decision making; it would also mean that mifepristone is inaccessible even in states where abortion is legal.
