Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., urged President Joe Biden to "ignore" a Texas federal court judge's ruling Friday to suspend the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, which could ban the sales of the abortion-inducing medicine nationwide.
"I believe the Biden administration should ignore this ruling," Ocasio-Cortez said during a televised interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. "I think that the courts have the legitimacy, and they rely on the legitimacy of their rulings, and what they are currently doing is engaged in an unprecedented and dramatic erosion of the legitimacy of the courts."
Politico reported that U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, sided with anti-abortion advocates challenging the FDA approval of the medication, going back to the initial approval in 2000 and more recently allowing the pills to be prescribed through telemedicine, sent by mail, and made available at local pharmacies.
According to the report, the Biden administration filed an appeal of the decision Friday night.
Also on Friday, U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice, who was appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama and is based in Spokane, Washington, issued a conflicting order ruling the FDA maintain the status quo, which could force the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"It is the justices themselves, through the deeply partisan and unfounded nature of these rulings, that are undermining their own enforcements,” she said in the CNN interview.
The Politico report said the pills are generally used in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy to induce an abortion and have become the most common method for abortion in the country.
Biden responded Friday night, saying the Texas ruling was a "political attack."
"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," Biden said in a statement Friday. "If this ruling were to stand, then there will be virtually no prescription approved by the FDA which would be safe from these kinds of political, ideological attacks. My administration will fight this ruling."
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also called on Biden to ignore the Texas ruling.
"There is no way this decision has a basis in law. It is instead rooted in conservatives' dangerous and undemocratic takeover of our country's institutions," Wyden said in a statement Friday. "No matter what happens in seven days, I believe the Food and Drug Administration has the authority to ignore this ruling, which is why I'm again calling on President Biden and the FDA to do just that. The FDA, doctors, and pharmacies can and must go about their jobs like nothing has changed and keep mifepristone accessible to women across America. If they don't, the consequences of banning the most common method of abortion in every single state will be devastating."
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