Gillibrand: ‘Outrageous’ Judges Imposing Their Religious Beliefs on the FDA

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that it was “outrageous” judges are imposing their religious beliefs on the FDA while discussing a federal judge’s ruling to suspend FDA approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.

Anchor Jake Tapper said, “So do you think there are five votes on the U. S. Supreme Court to keep mifepristone legal and have access to it?”

Gillibrand said, “We don’t know, but what we do know is since the Dobbs decision, this court has had an all-out assault on women’s reproductive freedom. Starting with that decision that takes away the right to privacy and what we are seeing in these Republican legislatures as well as these very conservative courts, is a continuation of that assault. So to take away the right to have medicine is an extension of taking away this right to privacy. To say we can’t have medicine sent by doctors by mail to people across the country is further invading into this right to privacy where the court and government has a right to what’s in your mail and who you’re talking to, and what communications you’re having. It’s an outrage, and so we will fight in every respect we can. We will file lawsuits. We will continue to appeal this kind of decision. We will all so continue to fight state by state to codify Roe in state law. We’ve had many ballot initiatives, even in red places like Kansas and Montana, have been successful. The American people believe that we have this right to privacy, and people believe that women have reproductive freedom, and so if they want to guarantee it, they’re going to have to fight for it, and we’re going to eventually have to codify it into law.”

He continued, “When you take away 50% of Americans’ right to privacy to say women don’t have it during the reproductive years. It is such a overstretch and an outrageous statement that I think when people wake up to the reality of what this means for a conservative court where they believe they should impose their views of the world on their religious beliefs, their views on health care on the FDAs decision of 20 years ago of a drug that has been deemed very safe.”

Gillibrand added, “This medicine is used for many, many indications for women in menopause and for miscarriages. Courts and judges should not be imposing their religious beliefs on the FDA and our scientific review of what medicines are health-healthy for patients.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN