Ocasio-Cortez: If Supreme Court upholds abortion pill block, it could 'institute a national abortion ban'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday that should a case that upholds a ban on access to an abortion pill reach the Supreme Court, it would essentially “institute a national abortion ban.”

A federal judge in Texas issued a ruling that blocked the federal authorization of mifepristone, an abortion medication that has been on the market for over 20 years, arguing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rushed its approval process. The Biden administration quickly appealed the ruling, setting the case on a possible path to the highest court in the country.

On the same day, a judge in Washington state ordered U.S. authorities to not make any changes to access to the medications with the dueling decisions throwing into question the future of access to the abortion method.

“I do not believe that the courts have the authority to have the authority over the FDA that they just asserted. And I do believe that it creates a crisis,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Should the Supreme Court do that, it would essentially institute a national abortion ban, because you have an extraordinary amount of states who have implemented surgical bans or bans after very early time periods.”

The ruling by the federal judge in Texas is just another move that has restricted access to abortion care after the Supreme Court struck down federal protections for abortion last year. A string of Republican-led states have passed laws that have drawn back abortion access.

In Washington, a judge granted a request by 17 states and D.C. who sued to expand access to the pill. The judge did not go that far, instead blocking efforts to restrict the FDA's access to the drugs already in place.

Ocasio-Cortez said the banning of abortion medication puts the country in “extremely dangerous territory.”

“Once you start banning medication abortion, which represents the overwhelming number of abortions in the United States, then we are in extremely dangerous territory,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

A number of Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, have floated the idea of the Biden administration not adhering to the ruling from the federal judge in Texas. The New York congresswoman said there is precedent for the White House ignoring the ruling until a higher court issues an opinion.

“There is an extraordinary amount of precedent for this,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “The idea of consistency in governance until there is a higher court ruling is not an unprecedented thing to happen.”