Hawaii Attorney General Lopez on Monday joined a multistate coalition to challenge the decision issued by a judge in the U.S. District Court in Texas that could restrict medication abortion access nationwide.
The amicus brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, urges the court to stay the district court’s ruling, which, if allowed to take effect, could halt the more than two-decades-old U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the abortion drug mifepristone.
Lopez and the coalition of 24 attorneys general warn that revoking federal approval for mifepristone will drastically reduce access to safe abortion care and miscarriage management for millions of people across the country, endangering lives and trampling states’ authority to protect and promote access to abortion.
“Mifepristone has been proven to be safe and effective,” Lopez said in a statement. “The Texas district court’s decision is an egregious attack on abortion access, and jeopardizes the health, safety, and well-being of millions of people across the country. Despite this decision, abortion remains legal and accessible in Hawaii, and I will continue to fight to maintain access to essential reproductive health care.”
This ruling comes in a challenge brought by anti-abortion groups seeking to revoke the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.
On April 7, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ordered the FDA to stay its approval of mifepristone, which happened in 2000. The court’s order does not take effect immediately, as the district court put its ruling on hold for seven days to give the federal government and the drug manufacturer an opportunity to appeal.
Lopez and the coalition are urging the appeals court to continue to stay the lower court’s unprecedented and legally erroneous decision pending the appeal, given the decades of clinical research and studies that have confirmed mifepristone’s safety and the critical role medication abortion plays in reproductive health care, particularly in low-income, underserved and rural communities.
According to current estimates, medication abortion accounts for approximately 54% of all abortions performed in the United States.
The other attorneys general challenging the ruling are from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.