A House Republican is joining liberals in calling for officials to simply ignore a major court ruling on an abortion drug.
During an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) panned U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s decision to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone — one of two drugs used to cause an abortion.
She pointed out the ruling was based on a law from the 1800s, which was later ruled unconstitutional, to suspend the approval.
“And look this is an FDA-approved drug whether you agree with its usage or not. That’s not your decision. That is the FDA’s decision,” she added.
When asked if she agrees with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) call to ignore the ruling, Mace said, “This is an FDA-approved drug. I support the usage of FDA-approved drugs even if I might disagree.”
“It’s not up to us to decide as legislators or even as the court system whether or not this is the right drug to use or not, number one. So I agree with ignoring it at this point, but there are other lawsuits that are happening right now in other states as well over this issue,” she continued.
Mace added, “But to look at the case itself, when you look at the law that the judge used, an old law that the Supreme Court said was unconstitutional, this thing should just be thrown out, quite frankly.”
Watch the video below:
Republican @NancyMace says she believes the FDA should ignore the Texas judge’s ruling. “This is an FDA approved drug. Whether you agree with its usage or not, that's not your decision. That is the FDA’s decision.” pic.twitter.com/wGJBunurcL
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 10, 2023
Collins asked Mace if she was stating the FDA should ignore the ruling.
The congresswoman responded, “This is an issue that Republicans have largely been on the wrong side of. We have, over the last nine months, not shown compassion towards women and this is one of those issues that I’ve tried to lead on as someone who’s pro-life and just have some common sense.”
She went on:
“In the state of South Carolina just a few weeks ago, we had some folks in the state legislature that essentially wanted to execute women who had abortions. So we’ve got some extreme views on this issue, but 90% of America is somewhere in the middle and I think that that 90% would be OK with listening to the FDA rather than a judge who used an old law that was determined unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. I think the vast, vast majority of Americans would support that decision.”
Kacsmaryk’s Friday ruling would ban the sale of mifepristone. It is not scheduled to take effect until April 14. And the Biden administration has already filed an appeal.
Ocasio-Cortez called the ruling a “mockery of our democracy and a mockery of our law,” as well as “an extreme abuse of power” and an “extraordinary example of judicial overreach.” She also urged the Biden administration to ignore the ruling.
After Kacsmaryk’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice issued a separate ruling stating federal officials cannot restrict the pills in the 17 states and Washington, D.C., that filed a lawsuit seeking to block the FDA from pulling mifepristone
For a lot of Americans, Kacsmaryk’s ruling is disturbing and perhaps they hope the administration will simply ignore it.
But that is a dangerous road to go down — especially calling for officials to ignore the ruling before an appeal has run its course. Courts do not have police forces to enforce their rulings. And their authority rests on officials voluntarily complying with them.
While we do not want courts issuing constitutionally problematic rulings and forcing bad law on the country, simply ignoring rulings you believe are wrong or you disagree with sets a dangerous precedent — especially when there is an alternative drug available.
Openly defying a federal court order opens the door for Republicans and Democrats to blatantly disregard other orders, which could defang the power of the judiciary branch, which would do grave harm to our constitutional order.
