Trump Will Defend Biden’s Abortion Pill Rules In Texas Case

The Trump administration is defending federal regulations allowing abortion pills to be available online and by mail, the Justice Department revealed on Monday.

But rather than defending the Food and Drug Administration’s rules for the pills on the merits, the DOJ argued in a filing with a Texas federal court that the three GOP-controlled states suing the agency lack standing and the case should be thrown out.

“Their claims have no connection to the Northern District of Texas,” the DOJ’s brief said of Idaho’s, Kansas’s and Missouri’s challenge, adding that the states are trying to rely on “an incorrect legal argument in unrelated briefing” to argue for new restrictions on the drugs and accusing them of “gamesmanship.”

“The States are free to pursue their claims in a District where venue is proper,” the federal attorneys said. But the brief pointed to weaknesses in the states’ argument beyond standing, noting, for instance, that their challenge to the FDA’s 2016 action allowing the pills to be used up to 10 weeks of pregnancy rather than the previous seven is outside the statute of limitations.

The DOJ also slammed the challengers’ claims that FDA rules allowing the pills to be mailed across state lines violate laws in Idaho, Kansas and Missouri banning the use of the pills in most circumstances.

“The mere fact that someone might violate state law does not by itself injure the government,” Trump administration attorneys wrote. The states “fail to identify any actual or imminent controversy over whether any of their laws are preempted.”

President Donald Trump said repeatedly on the 2024 campaign trail that he would take no federal action to limit the availability of abortion pills, arguing the issue should be left to states. This stance has angered anti-abortion groups that backed Trump’s reelection, and they have vowed to continue pushing for federal restrictions on mifepristone, a drug used in roughly two-thirds of all abortions.

Trump’s new legal filing over the regulation of mifepristone indicates an emerging pattern in his administration’s legal strategy, following the DOJ’s move earlier this year to defend a core provision of the Affordable Care Act. The administration’s stances in both cases surprised many by backing policies favored by Democrats, but at their core they are about preserving executive power and preventing courts from second-guessing agency decisions.

The government’s stance in this case that the states lack standing also comes as the administration is fending off challenges from California and other Democratic-led states, and could set a beneficial precedent in those lawsuits.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Monday that the Justice Department “should not get a gold star” for its position defending mifepristone from the states’ challenge, noting that the Trump administration could still move to restrict access to the drugs in other ways.

“If, moving forward, the Trump administration stops defending the FDA’s evidence-based decisions on mifepristone or orders the FDA to reconsider its regulations, that would tank the FDA’s credibility and betray President Trump’s campaign promise not to further interfere with abortion access," said Julia Kaye, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.

The case against the FDA was first brought by a group of anti-abortion doctors called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine that argued the agency’s 25-year-old approval of mifepristone — and several policies since that made the drug more easily accessible — should be overturned because FDA didn’t adequately consider the drug’s health risks.

The Supreme Court ruled last year that the doctors lacked standing, saying their argument that they might have to treat women who took the pills and experienced complications was too speculative. Idaho, Kansas and Missouri have since taken over the case, which is back before the Trump-appointed Texas U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk who heard the original challenge.

The states argued that they have an interest in protecting their citizens from potential health complications from the pills, and said they are also hurt financially by the pills because they cause abortions of fetuses that otherwise would have grown up to be taxpayers — an argument the Trump administration flatly dismissed in its Monday brief.

“The States fail to cite any precedent supporting their theory that they can sue over any policy that affects their potential future birthrate,” the DOJ wrote.