President Biden’s health chief said “everything is on the table” to fight the Texas abortion pill ruling last week that blocked the prescribing and distribution of mifepristone, including ignoring the ruling as some Democrats have suggested.
Mifepristone is one of two medications used for medicated abortions for more than 20 years. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) is among a number of Democrats who have argued there is precedent for ignoring the ruling if the Biden administration fails to halt it in court.
CNN’s Dana Bash asked Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on “State of the Union” whether having the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ignore the ban was being considered.
“Everything is on the table,” the secretary responded. “The president said that way back when the Dobbs decision came out. Every option is on the table.”
A federal judge in Texas blocked the abortion pill approval on Friday, giving the government a weeklong window to appeal and seek emergency relief before the ruling is enacted. The FDA appealed the decision later the same day to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Separately on Friday, a federal judge in Washington state blocked the FDA from “altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone” after 17 states and Washington, D.C. filed a lawsuit arguing the drug was too regulated.
These duel rulings have thrown the future availability of the drug into question, with the fight likely to move quickly to the Supreme Court.
Becerra said the administration would take the fight to court, and believed it would prevail. Asked if he was concerned about the conservative Supreme Court issuing a ruling on the abortion pill ban, Becerra said that it is the justices’ role to “apply the law to the facts and the evidence.”
“And so I don’t care who the nine justices are on the Supreme Court or any court of appeal,” he said. “They should be able to discern the difference between inserting their personal judgment and using the facts and evidence to make a legal ruling.”