Judge Thomas O. Rice of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington reiterated that his injunction protecting access to mifepristone in Hawaii and 17 other states remains in effect despite recent decisions by courts in Texas.
In an appeal of a separate Texas lawsuit, a panel of judges in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order imposing restrictions on access to mifepristone. But Rice clarified those orders don’t apply to the 18 states that filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Washington to preserve and expand access to abortion medication. Hawaii is one of those 18 states.
“Judge Rice’s order makes very clear that there can be no change to mifepristone access in the State of Hawaii under the current legal framework,” Hawaii’s lead attorney in the Washington case, Deputy Attorney General Erin Lau said in a release from the governor’s office. “The injunction Judge Rice issued protects mifepristone access in our state, notwithstanding the Fifth Circuit’s recent, separate order.”
Rice issued an injunction on April 7 barring the FDA from “altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone” in the states involved in Washington’s lawsuit.
According to the release, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum are the lead attorneys in the Washington lawsuit with support from Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, and attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
“Mifepristone is safe and effective,” Deputy Solicitor General Kaliko Fernandes, a leading expert in the law of reproductive rights, said in a release. “The Department of the Attorney General is committed to doing everything we can to protect mifepristone access for our residents.”
The FDA has announced that it will appeal the Fifth Circuit decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.