Rep. Nancy Mace, RS.C., joined Democrats on Monday in calling on the Biden administration to ignore a Texas judge’s ruling on the abortion drug known as mifepristone, calling the decision the court of “unconstitutional”.
Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled late Friday that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone was illegal, a decision that effectively banned the sale of the drug. But the issue became a legal quagmire when the Texas ruling was followed within hours by a conflicting Washington state court ruling that ordered the FDA to keep the drug available.
Monday on CNN, Mace said she agreed with Democrats who say Biden should ignore the Texas decision: “It’s not up to us as lawmakers…whether or not it’s the right drug to use or not, #1, so I’m ok with ignoring it at this point.
Asked by Fox News Digital why she thinks the FDA should overturn the Texas ban, Mace said the decision was illegal because the judge based his ruling on invalid law.
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Rep. Nancy Mace, RS.C., told Fox News Digital why she’s against a Texas federal judge’s decision that bans a type of abortion pill. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images/File)
“I don’t agree with the decision,” she said. “The judge used an 1873 law, which the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 1983. And so the whole basis of the decision, I would say, was unconstitutional in that regard.”
She went further in a separate interview with Fox News Digital and accused her fellow Republicans of being “on the wrong side of history” on abortion rights, making it clear that she is pro-life.
Mace declined to say whether she was concerned about whether ignoring the Texas judge would set a dangerous legal precedent. But she said those kinds of decisions are being made, pointing to Missouri officials in a county that passed an ordinance to sever ties with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) after claiming that the body was unconstitutional.
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“Look at Camden County Missouri, I mean, they’re ignoring the ATF, saying they’re unconstitutional,” Mace said. “Both sides are fighting things they believe are unconstitutional.”
Health and Social Services Secretary Xavier Becerra (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/File)
“Both sides are fighting things they believe are unconstitutional,” she added. “If it’s OK for one side, it should be OK for both sides. And I think that’s what we’re missing here in this argument.
“The other thing that we also miss is that [Republicans] are not on the right side of history, if we want to take an extreme position on this issue, because the vast majority of Americans are not with us on this. They just aren’t,” the moderate GOP lawmaker said.
On Monday, the Biden administration stepped up its fight against the Texas decision by filing a request to suspend the order backed by the FDA and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Several Democrats have come out in favor of the move. For example, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., both called on the Biden administration to ignore the abortion pill decision, prompting criticism from Republican lawmakers on the left’s contempt for the judiciary.
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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital that “the left continues its assault on the rule of law.” (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/File)
“The left continues its assault on the rule of law,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital. “Whether it’s packing the Supreme Court, indicting the former president on flimsy charges, or urging the administration to ignore a federal judge’s ruling, the left has made it clear that ‘she despised the rule of law and only cared about power.”
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Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, compared the Democrats leading the demand to Southern Democrats of the last century who resisted the civil rights movement.
“Like Southern Democrats Against Civil Rights in the 1950s, progressive Democrats today are demanding that a federal agency ignore a court ruling they don’t like,” the Texas conservative wrote on Twitter.