AG Knudsen Meddles in Washington Case, Tries to Block Access to Medication Abortion
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 12th, 2023
CONTACT
hadley@montanademocrats.org
Signs Motion with other Right Wing AGs to Intervene in Washington Ruling on Mifepristone
Helena, MT – On Wednesday, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen signed on to a motion to intervene in the Washington mifepristone case that conflicts with the Texas case blocking the medication abortion pill. Knudsen joined other extremist, right-wing Attorneys General on their increasingly senseless crusade against the right to access reproductive health care.
Here’s a timeline of Austin Knudsen’s crusade against Montanans’ reproductive rights and freedoms:
In early February of this year, Knudsen joined several other extremist, right-wing Attorneys General to send a letter to Walgreens to threaten legal action if they attempted to provide abortion medication.
Later that month, Knudsen joined his fellow extremist Attorneys General to file a brief in support of the lawsuit Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, arguing that the FDA exceeded its constitutional authority when it approved mifepristone in 2000. Mifepristone is considered one of the safest, most effective ways for women to access abortion, and has been safely used for more than 20 years.
In March, responding to Knudsen’s letter, Walgreens announced it would no longer be providing mifepristone in Montana.
In early April, a federal judge in Texas and in Washington state issued conflicting, nearly simultaneous rulings on the legal status of mifepristone. District Judge Kacsmaryk, in Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Texas, would make mifepristone illegal, while District Judge Rice essentially ordered that availability of the drug must be protected.
In response, Knudsen signed on to a motion to intervene in the Washington case, saying that since some of the plaintiff states (where mifepristone will be protected under Rice’s orders) border some of the states like Montana where it will be illegal, Montana wouldn’t be “able to protect their interests fully in this matter.”
“Montana’s extremist Attorney General has been working behind the scenes for months to restrict our constitutional right to access to abortion,” says Sheila Hogan, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party. “His authoritarian crusade to strip Montana women and families of their constitutional rights is ugly and dangerous. Montanans want their elected officials to protect their right to medical privacy, not wage a costly, unpopular war to dismantle it in Federal Court.”
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