Trump's week in review: Trump Accounts for kids, abortion pill lawsuit intervention

1. Trump DOJ asks court to pause lawsuit over abortion drugs

In a court filing Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal court to allow the Food and Drug Administration to continue to distribute the abortion pill by mail as an ongoing review of the “Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS)” for the abortion drug continues.

The court filing comes as the state of Louisiana is challenging the Biden-era policy of allowing women to obtain abortion pills, also known as mifepristone, by mail. 

“Given this widespread debate over the safety of mifepristone, FDA has concluded that the best path forward is for the agency to reconsider the restrictions on mifepristone based on all the evidence before the agency,” the court document stated. “Plaintiffs now threaten to short circuit the agency’s orderly review and study of the safety risks of mifepristone by asking this Court for an immediate stay of the 2023 REMS Modification approved three years ago.” 

According to the DOJ, “Plaintiffs’ requested relief may prove as unnecessary as it is disruptive, if FDA ultimately decides that the in-person dispensing requirement must be restored.”

The DOJ’s stance did not sit well with some pro-life leaders and activists who have long warned about the safety risks of the abortion pills.

Louisiana’s Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill denounced the legal document as “an affront to our sovereignty and the dignity of women and the unborn” as she took issue with the Trump administration’s logic: “[FDA} admits that the REMS is flawed but claims that Louisiana can’t sue to stop the 1,000 dangerous abortions a month in Louisiana that the REMS allows.” 

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, praised Murrill for “defending Louisiana’s right to protect the unborn and their mothers” and asked, “Why is a Republican administration undermining that right?”