Trump administration urges judge to toss states' lawsuit over access to abortion pill mifepristone

Washington — The Trump administration on Monday urged a federal district court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration's actions expanding access to the widely used abortion pill mifepristone. 

Justice Department lawyers wrote in a filing with the U.S. district court in Amarillo, Texas, that the three states pursuing the lawsuit — Missouri, Idaho and Kansas — should not be able to do so in that court. The administration is pursuing a request initially made by the Biden administration last year in the closely watched challenge to mifepristone, a drug used to terminate an early pregnancy, that has been playing out before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk.

"At bottom, the states cannot keep alive a lawsuit in which the original plaintiffs were held to lack standing, those plaintiffs have now voluntarily dismissed their claims, and the states' own claims have no connection to this district," Trump administration lawyers wrote. "The states are free to pursue their claims in a district where venue is proper, but the states' claims before this court must be dismissed or transferred pursuant to the venue statute's mandatory command."