the availability of a key abortion medication hangs in the balance after rival federal court rulings were released Friday from judges in two different states a district judge in Texas suspended the fda's approval of miffapristone a widely used drug to end pregnancies but that ruling doesn't take effect for seven days the Department of Justice immediately appealed asking the fifth Circuit of Louisiana to freeze the judge's order adding to the chaos an hour after the Texas ruling a second Federal Court decision was released in Washington state on a Case led by 17 Democratic Attorneys General ordering the FDA to keep miffiperstone on the market in those 17 States and the District of Columbia New Jersey is not involved all of this sets the stage for the U.S Supreme Court to take up the issue and Advocates Say it'll need to do so quickly the two orders are legally incompatible Catherine Weiss is a partner at the Lowenstein Sandler firm here in New Jersey and part of a national network of lawyers advising clients on this case she says if all of this sounds confusing it's because it is she joins me now Catherine let me ask you about the Texas ruling first how much potential is there in the coming days for that ruling to eliminate access to this medication even in a state like New Jersey the Texas decision poses a very significant risk that uh Memphis pristine will become unapproved it will no longer be an approved drug by the FDA which will drastically affect its availability throughout the United States now again that will only occur if the Texas decision takes effect which it will do by its own terms on Friday evening unless another Court the fifth circuit or the Supreme Court extends this day yeah I mean How likely is it that an appeals court ruling will come before Friday before sort of the clock ticks on this yeah I I I I can't you know guarantee anything the but I would expect the stay motion has already been filed in the fifth circuit the FDA has already filed it stay motion it did that earlier today and I would expect that the fifth circuit would make a decision about whether to extend the stay in connection with setting a briefing schedule on the stay motion but there's there's no guarantee I I would expect a decision but that's just me yeah not knowing of course exactly the timeline of how this will play out but what what are the next legal steps because it's not just uh consumers patients who have these questions but also providers who have maybe already written prescriptions pharmacies who perhaps already have the drug in stock what are the next legal steps from here the fifth circuit will decide whether to extend the stay or not and it will also decide if it extends the stay it's unclear for how long it we simply there's just simply a lot we don't know yet but the steps are these the fifth circuit will make a decision about whether to extend the stay the FDA will then make a decision um about whether to seek further review in the United States Supreme Court of this day can you talk at all about what a power if any the FDA has in this the FDA is is the defendant and it makes the decisions about whether to seek the stay which it already has and whether to appeal the denial of a stay it is in in control of its piece of the litigation and it so it has considerable power to decide what steps to take in regard to pursuing its rights there's been a lot of talk Catherine about uh similar cases being brought against other drugs that fall into the same category as mifiperstone is that speculation How likely is that of course all of this stemming after the Dobbs case last year in the United States at this time there are really Two drugs used in the abortion regimen one is mifipristone which is the drug that it's at issue in the Texas and Washington cases and the other is a drug called misoprostol uh and and whether there will be other cases aimed at the use of misoprostol or the approval of misoprostol I can't say I think it's possible very quickly uh before I have to let you go How likely is it that this case will go to the Supreme Court in your estimation I think it's quite likely that that these cases will end up in the Supreme Court Catherine Weiss uh thank you so much from Lowenstein Sandler a partner there at the firm thank you you're welcome [Music]