Trump administration asks judge to toss suit restricting access to
abortion medication
[May 06, 2025]
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and REBECCA BOONE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday asked a judge to
toss out a lawsuit from three GOP-led states seeking to cut off
telehealth access to abortion medication mifepristone.
Justice Department attorneys stayed the legal course charted by Biden
administration, though they didn't directly weigh in on the underlying
issue of access to the drug that's part of the nation's most common
method of abortion.
Rather, the government argued the states don't have the legal right, or
standing, to sue.
“The states are free to pursue their claims in a district where venue is
proper, but the states’ claims before this court must be dismissed or
transferred pursuant to the venue statute’s mandatory command,” federal
government attorneys wrote.
The lawsuit from Idaho, Kansas and Missouri argues that Food and Drug
Administration should roll back access to mifepristone. They filed their
complaint after the Supreme Court preserved access to mifepristone last
year. They want the FDA to prohibit telehealth prescriptions for
mifepristone, require three in-office visits and restrict the point in a
pregnancy when it can be used.
The case is being considered by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in
Texas, a Trump nominee who once ruled in favor of halting approval for
the drug.
Kacsmaryk’s original ruling came in a lawsuit filed by anti-abortion
groups. It was narrowed by an appeals court before being tossed out by
the Supreme Court, which found the plaintiffs lacked the legal right to
sue.
The three states later moved to revive the case, arguing they did have
legal standing because access to the drug undermined their abortion
laws.
But the Department of Justice attorneys said the states can't just
piggyback on the earlier lawsuit as a way to keep the case in Texas.
Nothing is stopping the states from filing the lawsuit someplace else,
attorney Daniel Schwei wrote, but the venue has to have some connection
to the claims being made.
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The Department of Justice seal is seen during a news conference
Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker
IV, File)
 Besides, Schwei wrote, the states
are challenging actions the FDA took in 2016, when it first loosened
restrictions on mifeprostone. That's well past the six-year time
limit to sue, he said.
Abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy in
Idaho. Missouri had a strict ban, but clinics recently began
offering abortions again after voters approved a new constitutional
amendment for reproductive rights. Abortion is generally legal up to
22 weeks in Kansas, where voters rejected an anti-abortion ballot
measure in 2022, though the state does have age restrictions.
Trump told Time magazine in December he would not restrict access to
abortion medication. On the campaign trail, said abortion is an
issue for the states and stressed that he appointed justices to the
Supreme Court who were in the majority when striking down the
national right to abortion in 2022.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s stance on abortion seems to
have shifted at times, drawing criticism from both abortion rights
advocates and anti-abortion forces. During his first confirmation
hearing in January, he repeatedly said, “I have always believed
abortion is a tragedy,” when pressed about his views.
Mifepristone is usually used in combination with a second drug for
medication abortion, which has accounted for more than three-fifths
of all abortions in the U.S. since the Supreme Court’s ruling
overturning Roe v. Wade.
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