The request echoes the position the Biden administration took in the case in January, surprising some observers.
“Mary Ziegler, a law professor and abortion law expert at the University of California, Davis, said that the Trump administration’s support of the Biden administration’s earlier request to dismiss the case ‘is surprising, but I think the best way to read it is that they’re just buying time to figure out what to do about mifepristone.‘“
By Pam Belluck
Pam Belluck has covered reproductive health for over a decade.
May 5, 2025
The Trump administration asked a federal judge on Monday to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to sharply restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone — taking the same position as the Biden administration in a closely watched case that has major implications for abortion access.
The court filing by the Justice Department is striking, given that President Trump and a number of officials in his administration have forcefully opposed abortion rights. Mr. Trump often boasts that he appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed the national right to abortion. And so far in his second term, his administration has taken steps to curtail programs that support reproductive health.
The filing is the first time the Trump administration has weighed in on the lawsuit, which seeks to reverse numerous regulatory changes that the Food and Drug Administration made over the past decade that greatly expanded access to mifepristone.
The Trump administration’s request makes no mention of the merits of the case, which have not yet been considered by the courts. Rather, echoing the argument that the Biden administration made shortly before Mr. Trump took office, the court filing asserts that the case does not meet the legal standard to be heard in the federal district court in which it was filed.
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