The Trump administration is moving with uncharacteristic timidity on key abortion pill cases, even as the Department of Justice wastes no time weighing in on other legal battles.
In several cases where the Biden administration had been defending access to mifepristone, one of two drugs used in abortion medication, the Trump administration has now asked judges in Hawaii, Virginia and Texas for a 60-day extension to decide how it’ll keep handling those cases, saying it needs the time “to familiarize itself with the issues.”
The approach seems surprising given how quickly the Justice Department moved to drop a lawsuit to protect access abortions in situations where a patient’s life is at risk — one of the most consequential federal cases since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade.