a federal judge in Texas is likely to make a decision soon on a lawsuit that would end the distribution of one of the most common and effective drugs used in medication abortions by seeking to overturn the decades-old FDA approval of miffapristone it's the most significant abortion related case since the fall of Roe v Wade in June and will have implications even in democratic-controlled States like New Jersey where abortion rights are protected for more I'm joined Now by Kimberly mutcherson the codeine and professor of law at Rutgers Camden law school dean mutcherson helped us to understand who is in this group bringing the lawsuit and what's in their argument behind why the FDA should have their authorization reversed sure so uh the group bringing bringing the case um unsurprisingly is a deeply anti-abortion organization um and their goal essentially is to convince a judge in Texas they were very specific about where they decided to file this lawsuit because they really wanted to get this particular judge um to get that judge essentially to decide that one of the drugs that is used for medication abortion should never have been approved um if a person which is a hard hard one to say um which has actually been on the market in the United States has been approved in the United States for over two decades um but the plaintiffs here are claiming that it is uh that the process by which it was approved was flawed and that it creates burdens on the Health Care system that it creates unfair risk or unnecessary risks for pregnant women and so the sort of goes on but their goal essentially is to get the FDA to no longer allow this drug to be dispensed in the United States well if the judge and and we will point out the judge is a trump appointee from 2017 if the judge does side with this group what would be the immediate impact so the immediate impact is an impact on the parties right so when you have a lawsuit it's the parties really you're going to be bound by the decisions of the court and the the space that we're in right now is a preliminary injunction so the goal here is basically to get an order the plaintiff's one in order um that will sit in place for the pendency of the proceedings um and so part of what they have to do is they have to show that they have a likelihood of succeeding on the merits so if we get this injunction um from this judge it'll obviously bound bind the people who are in the case which in this case includes one of the manufacturers of nifepristone so that manufacturer would not be allowed to produce the drug or to sell the drug um in the United States but there are also generic versions of the drug it would not be bound by that lawsuit and quite frankly it's not clear that the FDA is going going to be pound and here's what I mean by that so the FDA actually has a process in place that it uses if it wants to withdraw approval of a drug and this lawsuit is trying to circumvent that process so the FDA could say listen if we want to do this we have a process and we could start that process which makes a lot more sense the FDA could decide it's not going to enforce any withdrawal of the approval of the medication so even if we have this order from the court the FDA could say we're not going to do anything about it so if people are still just dispensing and that's going to be fine with us and quite frankly uh the idea that everybody is getting their pills from a you know licensed pharmacist or that they're all going to a doctor's office really misses the mark because quite frankly a lot of these pills can be purchased online they can be purchased on the internet so it's not even clear even if we do get this order from the judge that people won't be able to still access mytho bristum well what's the effect in a state like New Jersey our lawmakers have moved to codify abortion rights here would it still impact access it really shouldn't impact access for a few reasons right one is you say New Jersey has worked very hard over the last year or so to make sure that it is clear that people who are seeking abortion care in new New Jersey are going to be able to access it and that providers are going to be able to provide abortion care to people in New Jersey so the question really will be whether there is um sort of um Country-Wide impact of what whatever order comes from this judge and again that really depends on in a lot of ways what the FDA decides that it wants to do so assuming that this judge comes down on the side of the plaintiffs which seems likely given that he has been very clear about his anti-abortion sentiments um then it really falls into the fda's court and the FDA says listen there's nothing we're not going to do anything here um then we're all going to be fine in New Jersey and every other place yeah I guess I'm wondering if it would lead more people to seek out Surgical abortions and more folks coming to New Jersey where we know resources are already strained yeah I mean I think that's sort of the consistent problem that we have seen since Dobbs was decided um so one thing and and I think this is really important is so much of what has happened postdobs is about sowing confusion um and so one of the things that we could see is that this judge comes out with this decision and all of a sudden you know news outlets and uh and press releases are saying oh my gosh you can't dispense this drug anymore um which isn't necessarily going to be true so it's really important that we get um accurate information out there whatever decision on this particular judge makes um and certainly for some people I mean half of um abortions that happen in the first trimester are medication abortion so that's a huge number of people who are accessing medication abortion um and so yes I do think that there will be some people who say listen you know the folks in my state um are are feeling a little squirrely about continuing to provide medication abortion so let me cross a few state lines and go to New Jersey and try to get access there so the the pressure on New Jersey clinics the pressure on some Pennsylvania clinics because you've got people coming over the state lines there as well is only going to continue to increase until we get to some sort of equilibrium on abortion in this country Kimberly mattress and coding of the Rutgers Law School in Camden thanks so much thank you [Music]