Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., on Sunday dismissed concerns that the Texas judge’s recent abortion pill ruling will upend the Food and Drug Administration’s authority and have wider consequences on other drugs.
In an exclusive interview on “Meet the Press,” NBC News’ Chuck Todd said that U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk‘s ruling to suspended the FDA’s longtime approval of key abortion pill mifepristone appears to call into questions other FDA approvals on other drugs.
“Do you worry about the upending a status quo and sort of upending the FDA’s authority in a way that will be— create sort of chaos in the pharmaceutical industry?” Todd asked.
Cassidy replied: “I think that’s totally alarmist. It’s totally alarmist. And by the way, when did the FDA think they could go above the law?”
“It can ignore it — it can ignore the Administrative Procedure Act, which every other agency has to follow theoretically, but they don’t have to? So, so I mean, I think that’s alarmist and I also think that the FDA should not be above the law,” Cassidy added.
Cassidy, who is also a physician, was asked whether he’s glad that the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion, was overturned by the Supreme Court last year in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.
“I think Dobbs is the uncomfortable middle ground where people will confront that there’s a diversity of opinion and no one group has the ability to impose their will upon the other,” he said. “And so Dobbs, I think, was the correct decision.”
Cassidy issued his latest remarks days after the Supreme Court temporarily blocked Kacsmaryk’s decision that prevents patients from obtaining the key abortion pill mifepristone by mail.
Both the Justice Department and Danco Laboratories, which makes the brand version of mifepristone, Mifeprex, had asked the court to immediately step in.
Justice Samuel Alito, who issued the brief order, said the hold would remain in effect until midnight on Wednesday, giving the justices more time to consider next steps.
The FDA approved mifepristone more than 20 years ago to be used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol, to terminate pregnancies at up to 10 weeks. More than half of abortions in the U.S. are done through medication abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
