GOP Rep. Mace calls on FDA to ignore decision of Texas judge on abortion pill block

Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace on Monday suggested that the Food and Drug Administration ought to ignore a ruling from a federal judge halting its approval of an abortion drug.

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on Friday determined that the FDA did not properly review the safety risks of mifepristone before approval it in 2000. Mifepristone is one of two drugs used jointly to induce an abortion via pill. The other, misoprostol, is available through a traditional prescription.

"I agree with ignoring it at this point. There are other lawsuits that are happening right now in other states as well over this issue," Mace said on CNN. "This is an issue that Republicans have been largely on the wrong side of, we have over the last nine months not shown compassion towards women."

"[W]e’ve got some extreme views on this issue, but 90 percent of America is somewhere in the middle. And I think that that 90 percent would be okay with listening to the FDA rather than a judge who used an old law that was determined unconstitutional by the Supreme Court," she added.

Kacsmaryk's ruling gave the government one week to appeal his decision, which the Department of Justice did on Monday. A federal judge in Washington has also issued a ruling blocking the FDA from in any way altering the availability or the drug in more than a dozen states, according to The Hill. The matter could reach the Supreme Court.

In the wake of Kacsmaryk's ruling, numerous Democrats such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ron Wyden, Ore., have also called on the FDA to reject the decision.

Ocasio-Cortez observed that such a decision required federal "enforcement" and that the president had the discretion to either enforce the decision or decline to do so.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.