Infamous 5th Circuit upholds some abortion pill restrictions

On Wednesday, conservatives on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld portions of a ruling that restricts access to mifepristone, a widely used abortion pill. 

The matter is likely bound for the Supreme Court after the Justice Department quickly said that it will appeal the ruling.

Legal experts reacting to Wednesday’s news said Americans shouldn’t expect a change in access to the pill just yet, thanks to a stay the Supreme Court placed on U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling in Texas at the request of the U.S. government.

That said, given how the Supreme Court is loaded with conservatives, the clock could be ticking on access to the most popular form of abortion care. And the 5th Circuit’s ruling is troubling as is: The decision illustrates the right-wing rot on the 5th Circuit’s bench, and it shows that there are judges willing to contort the law to suit conservative interests.

As NBC News reported in April: “A coalition of anti-abortion groups, collectively called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, sued in November challenging the process through which the FDA evaluated and approved mifepristone. They argue that the government did not adequately assess the drug’s safety and should not have made it accessible via telehealth during the pandemic.”

In April, the Trump-appointed Kacsmaryk sided with the coalition. And on Wednesday, a three-judge panel at the 5th Circuit — with two judges appointed by Trump and one by George W. Bush — largely sided with Kacsmaryk.

Kacsmaryk has no medical background, but he does have a history of being an anti-abortion extremist. After his ruling was handed down in the spring, NBC News spoke with legal and medical experts who said language used by Kacsmaryk parroted the extreme rhetoric frequently used by anti-abortion activists. 

The 5th Circuit’s move to essentially make that ruling the law of the land speaks to a point Joy made last week on “The ReidOut” when she spoke about conservative legal theory causing havoc nationwide, as right-wingers seek out and find judges to rubber-stamp their desires.

The 5th Circuit’s siding with an anti-abortion ignoramus like Kacsmaryk is yet more proof of what Joy, Katie Phang and Charles Coleman were warning about.