AOC: Texas Judge's Ruling Against Abortion Drug 'Is an Extreme Abuse of Power'
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Sunday commended the Biden administration for appealing a ruling by a Texas judge that would block nationwide access to the abortion drug mifepristone.
“I do think that, when it comes to gaming out what the very real possibilities are in the coming days, weeks and months, this is not just about speculation, but this is about preparation.
“And the reality of our courts right now is very disturbing. This ruling is an extreme abuse of power,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“It is an extraordinary example of judicial overreach. The grounds of the ruling are completely — are just completely discredited and without grounds.”
AOC recommended what she called “agency nonacquiescence,” which means simply ignoring the Texas ruling:
“Well, I want to take a step back and dig into the grounds around ignoring this preliminary ruling as well.
“There is an extraordinary amount of precedent for this. There is a term known as agency nonacquiescence, and this has been used in — and for folks saying this is a first, that this is precedent-setting, it is not.
“The Trump administration also did this very thing, but, also, it has happened before. The idea of consistency in governance until there is a higher court ruling is not an unprecedented thing to happen. In fact, when the Trump administration did it, it was arguably through a much — a very grave issue when it came to DACA.
“The Trump administration was ordered to fully reinstate DACA, the DACA program, and they, in a complete defiance, did not do that. They rely on — the courts rely on the legitimacy of their rulings.
“And when they make a mockery of our system, a mockery of our democracy, and a mockery of our law, as — as what we just saw happen in this mifepristone ruling, then I believe that the executive branch, and we know that the executive branch has an enforcement discretion, especially in light of a contradicting ruling coming out of Washington.”
Host Dana Bash asked the congresswoman if the ruling should be ignored, even if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds it:
“I think one of the things that we need to examine is the grounds of that ruling,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“But 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. 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 surgicals — surgical bans or bans after very early time periods.
“And then, if you pair that with a mifepristone ban, then we will essentially have a ban on abortion with — there are certain work-around. I will admit there would be certain work-arounds. But we would have taken very significant step towards a national abortion ban.
“Once you ban medication abortion, which represents — or start banning medication abortion, which represents the overwhelming number of abortions in the United States, then we are in extremely dangerous territory. And I would urge the Supreme Court, in its lawlessness that they are exhibiting right now already, their extraordinary conflict of interest, I mean, my hope would be that we do not get to that point.”
“But once — if we do, I do believe that we must start to — start to push back on our system of checks and balances, which is designed to push back, should there be an example of judicial tyranny and judicial overreach.”
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