GOP Rep Joins With AOC in Response to Court Ruling on Abortion Drug

A House Republican is joining liberals in calling for officials to simply ignore a major court ruling on an abortion drug. During an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) panned U.S. District…

Bradley CortrightApr 10, 20234 min read

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Collins asked Mace if she was stating the FDA should ignore the ruling.

The congresswoman responded, “This is an issue that Republicans have largely been on the wrong side of. We have, over the last nine months, not shown compassion towards women and this is one of those issues that I’ve tried to lead on as someone who’s pro-life and just have some common sense.”

She went on:

“In the state of South Carolina just a few weeks ago, we had some folks in the state legislature that essentially wanted to execute women who had abortions. So we’ve got some extreme views on this issue, but 90% of America is somewhere in the middle and I think that that 90% would be OK with listening to the FDA rather than a judge who used an old law that was determined unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. I think the vast, vast majority of Americans would support that decision.”

Kacsmaryk’s Friday ruling would ban the sale of mifepristone. It is not scheduled to take effect until April 14. And the Biden administration has already filed an appeal.

Ocasio-Cortez called the ruling a “mockery of our democracy and a mockery of our law,” as well as “an extreme abuse of power” and an “extraordinary example of judicial overreach.” She also urged the Biden administration to ignore the ruling.

After Kacsmaryk’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice issued a separate ruling stating federal officials cannot restrict the pills in the 17 states and Washington, D.C., that filed a lawsuit seeking to block the FDA from pulling mifepristone

For a lot of Americans, Kacsmaryk’s ruling is disturbing and perhaps they hope the administration will simply ignore it.

But that is a dangerous road to go down — especially calling for officials to ignore the ruling before an appeal has run its course. Courts do not have police forces to enforce their rulings. And their authority rests on officials voluntarily complying with them.

While we do not want courts issuing constitutionally problematic rulings and forcing bad law on the country, simply ignoring rulings you believe are wrong or you disagree with sets a dangerous precedent — especially when there is an alternative drug available.

Openly defying a federal court order opens the door for Republicans and Democrats to blatantly disregard other orders, which could defang the power of the judiciary branch, which would do grave harm to our constitutional order.