U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is presiding over a lawsuit filed by anti-abortion groups seeking to reverse the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone, the first of two abortion-inducing drugs used to terminate a pregnancy through 10 weeks.
"The FDA has a basic responsibility to protect the health, the safety, and welfare of women and girls, but when it comes to chemical abortion drugs, the FDA has completely failed its duty," said Julie Blake, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that is representing the plaintiffs.
"As far as we know, no court has ever granted the kind of relief that anti-abortion groups are seeking, and it would effectively be one hand-picked judge in Texas setting abortion and drug approval policy for the entire country," said Lorie Chaiten, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, in a statement to the Washington Examiner.