The Trump administration on Monday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to sharply restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone — taking the same position as the Biden administration in a closely watched case that has major implications for abortion access.
The court filing by the Justice Department is striking, given that President Trump and a number of officials in his administration have forcefully opposed abortion rights. Mr. Trump often boasts that he appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted in 2022 to overturn the national right to abortion. And so far in his second term, his administration has taken steps to curtail programs that support reproductive health.
The court filing was the first time the Trump administration has weighed in on the lawsuit, which seeks to reverse numerous regulatory changes that the Food and Drug Administration made, starting in 2016, that greatly expanded access to mifepristone.
The Trump administration’s request made no mention of the merits of the case, which have not yet been considered by the courts. Rather, echoing the argument that the Biden administration made shortly before Mr. Trump took office, the court filing asserts that the case does not meet the legal standard to be heard in the federal district court in which it was filed.
The plaintiffs in the case are the conservative attorneys general of three states: Missouri, Idaho and Kansas, and the case was filed in a federal district court in Texas.
“The states do not dispute that their claims have no connection to the Northern District of Texas,” the Justice Department lawyers wrote in the filing.
“Regardless of the merits of the states’ claims, the states cannot proceed in this court,” they concluded, adding that the complaint “should be dismissed or transferred for lack of venue.”
The lawsuit also asks for new F.D.A. restrictions on mifepristone, including to outlaw the medication for anyone under 18. And it takes aim at the fast-growing practice of prescribing abortion pills through telemedicine and mailing them to patients, including those in states with abortion bans.
The case was initially filed in 2022 by a consortium of anti-abortion doctors and groups and made its way to the Supreme Court. But in unanimous ruling last June, the justices threw out the case, saying that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue because they couldn’t show they had been harmed by the F.D.A.’s decisions on mifepristone.
A few months later, the three attorneys general revived the lawsuit and filed an amended complaint as plaintiffs in the same federal district court in Texas. The judge in the case, Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, a Trump appointee who opposes abortion access, made rulings in the first iteration of the case that stridently criticized the F.D.A. and adopted much of the terminology used by anti-abortion activists.
Abortion pills are prescribed up to 12 weeks into pregnancy in the United States, and are now used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the country. Women in states with abortion bans have increasingly sought abortion pills through telemedicine providers.
Currently, 19 states have bans or restrictions stricter than the standard set by Roe v. Wade. In states that support abortion rights, telemedicine abortion providers have expanded, and a number of states have passed shield laws that protect doctors and other health providers who prescribe and send abortion pills to patients in states with bans or restrictions.
