Attorney General Kris Mayes has issued another challenge to keep accessibility of the controversial abortion drug mifepristone.
In a press release issued Tuesday, Mayes announced that she’d joined an amicus brief against the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruling blocking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of mifepristone. Mayes accused Texas federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of being an “extremist” opposing medical consensus.
“We cannot allow anti-abortion activists and an extremist judge to undo over two decades of medical consensus. Mifepristone is safe and effective and has been used by millions of Americans over the past two decades,” said Mayes.
The efficacy and safety of mifepristone remains dubious. In the ruling challenged by Mayes, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, Kacsmaryk noted the hundreds of known cases of infections and deaths arising from the drug’s usage. Kacsmaryk cited a 2006 hearing and report by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, which noted at least 8 women’s deaths, 9 life-threatening illnesses, 232 hospitalizations, 116 blood transfusions, and 88 cases of infection; overall, over 950 adverse event cases from the drug out of 575,000 prescriptions.
Kacsmaryk also noted that the FDA took nearly 14 years to reject a petition from multiple medical professional coalitions challenging their approval of the drug. The judge further noted that, on the same day of their rejection of the petition, the FDA expanded allowed usage for the abortion drug, changed the dosage, reduced the number of required in-person office visits, allowed non-doctors to prescribe and administer the drug, and eliminated the requirement for prescribers to report non-fatal adverse events from the drug.
In the ruling, Kacsmaryk shared that there are likely far more than the known 4,200 adverse events from chemical abortion drugs due to the FDA’s rule change eliminating non-fatal adverse reporting requirements and emergency rooms miscoding over 60 percent of women’s emergency room visits for adverse abortion drug reactions as miscarriages.
What’s more, Kacsmaryk rejected the main justification for the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug: reclassifying pregnancy as a “serious or life-threatening illness” and therefore justifying mifepristone as a “meaningful therapeutic benefit.”
“Pregnancy is a normal physiological state most women experience one or more times during their childbearing years — a natural process essential to perpetuating life,” stated Kacsmaryk. “Nothing in the [FDA] Final Rule supports the interpretation that pregnancy is a serious or life-threatening illness.”
Kacsmaryk also pointed out that the FDA had neglected to apply its logic to expedited treatments for other, less politicized ailments.
“[C]ategorizing complications or negative psychological experiences arising from pregnancy as ‘illnesses’ is materially different than classifying pregnancy itself as a serious or life-threatening illness,” stated Kascmaryk. “Tellingly, [the] FDA never explains how or why a ‘condition’ would not qualify as a ‘serious or life-threatening illness.’ Suppose that a woman experiences depression because of lower back pain that inhibits her mobility. Under FDA’s reading, a new drug used to treat lower back pain — which can cause depression, just like unplanned pregnancy — could obtain accelerated approval [per the FDA’s rationale].”
The FDA approval took place during the Clinton administration. Similar to Kacsmaryk, the Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) noted in 2008 that medical professionals critical of the abortion drug’s approval questioned the reclassification of the abortion drug as warranted.
“Critics have argued that unwanted pregnancy should not be considered a serious or life-threatening illness.”
The Texas federal court ruling doesn’t impact Arizona at present; it may later on, based on pending future rulings in higher courts.
SCOTUS agreed to an application for a stay by the FDA of the Texas district court ruling, filed early last month. SCOTUS issued the stay late last month, allowing mifepristone to be made widely available while the appeals process plays out in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Joining Mayes in the amicus brief are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Last week, a Pinal County man pleaded guilty to falsely attesting to his felon status when registering to vote. It’s the latest case investigated and prosecuted by the attorney general office’s Election Integrity Unit (EIU).
35-year-old San Tan Valley resident Roberto Garcia voted in the 2020 general election, despite having six previous felony convictions. Garcia was indicted in the Pinal County Superior Court in March.
Garcia faces a minimum of six months and a maximum of 2.5 years. He will receive his sentencing on August 22 by Judge Jason Holmberg. Probation wasn’t made available.
Public court records reveal that one of Garcia’s previous felony convictions concerned theft in 2006.
Another EIU case was convicted last month. As AZ Free News reported, a Scottsdale woman voted for her dead mother in the 2020 election. The court revoked the voter registration of that woman, 56-year-old Krista Michelle Conner of Cochise County. Conner’s fraudulent ballot wasn’t counted, according to Cochise County Recorder David Stevens.
Prior to that, another Scottsdale woman that also cast a ballot in her dead mother’s name in the 2020 election — 64-year-old Tracey Kay McKee — was sentenced to two years’ probation.
Other recent convictions of voter fraud concerned several elections over the past decade. Those were 70-year-old Marcia Johnson of Lake Havasu City, who cast a ballot in her dead father’s name in 2018, and 62-year-old Joseph John Marak of Surprise, who voted as a felon six times since 2016.
The EIU was formed in 2019 and launched its online complaint form in the summer of 2020.
Our Election Integrity Unit recently launched a new online complaint form to report allegations of voter fraud and file elections-related complaints. Read more about the EIU and how to file an elections-related complaint here:https://t.co/H3kNxxRrwt
On Tuesday, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for requiring schools to adopt gender ideology practices in order to receive free or reduced lunch funds. About half of Arizona’s children rely on those meals.
The federal government supplements states with funds to provide free or reduced meals for low-income K-12 students. As AZ Free News reported, the Biden administration updated its Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) guidelines for its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to clarify that protected classes within anti-discrimination policy included sexual orientation and gender identity. In the context of Biden’s correlating executive order, the guidelines would likely require schools to allow bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams open to gender identity.
Brnovich asserted in a press release that the Biden administration’s actions are unlawful.
“USDA Choice applies to beef at the market, not to our children’s restrooms,” said Brnovich. “This threat of the Biden administration to withhold nutritional assistance for students whose schools do not submit to its extreme agenda is unlawful and despicable.”
I brought Arizona into this lawsuit against Biden because the Left’s fascination with controlling our children is craven, lawless, and vile. @JoeBiden, using their well-being as pawns in your ideological game is wrong and unconstitutional. https://t.co/JB9gbWxJIb
Arizona’s lawsuit is part of a 22-state coalition led by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery. The remainder of the coalition includes Indiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Altogether, the 22 states receive over $28.6 billion in SNAP benefits for over 15.4 million individuals.
The states’ complaint asserted that President Joe Biden directed federal agencies to rewrite federal law in order to align with his January 2021 executive order to “prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity.” The lawsuit further asserted that the USDA circumvented the mandatory legal process outlined in the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to implement their new guidelines.
The states described the new guidelines as “arbitrary, capricious, [and] an abuse of discretion.” Specifically, their lawsuit alleged that the Biden administration failed to observe procedures required by law for guideline updates, misinterpreted Title IX, violated anti-commandeering and non-delegation doctrines, and violated the Constitution’s Spending Clause, First Amendment, Tenth Amendment, and separation of powers.
“To be clear, the States do not deny benefits based on a household member’s sexual orientation or gender identity. But the States do challenge the unlawful and unnecessary new obligations and liabilities that the Memoranda and Final Rule attempt to impose — obligations that apparently stretch as far as ending sex-separated living facilities and athletics and mandating the use of biologically inaccurate preferred pronouns,” read the complaint. “Collectively, the Memoranda and Final Rule inappropriately expand the law far beyond what statutory text, regulatory requirements, judicial precedent, and the U.S. Constitution permit.”
Brnovich’s decision to join the coalition lawsuit wasn’t the only action Arizona officials took in response to the USDA guidelines. Earlier this month, Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08) introduced legislation to nullify the gender ideology compliance requirement.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
On Monday, Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued a warning about cartels recruiting Arizona teens to traffic illegal immigrants across border.
The cartels recruit teenagers through social media ads. They promise to pay up to $2,000 for each illegal immigrant passenger they transport in vehicles, nicknamed “load cars,” to either Tucson or Phoenix.
Brnovich noted that his office has partnered with local, state, and federal agencies to prevent human smuggling in a task force known as “Operation Safe Streets.” At present, their task force averages two to ten load cars stopped a day.
Additionally, Brnovich reported thousands of smugglers coming to the border.
Load car drivers may face a slew of charges including kidnapping and unlawful fleeing.
In March, the youngest load car driver to date was arrested in Cochise County. The 14-year-old had two illegal immigrants in his car.
Earlier this month, Governor Doug Ducey petitioned the major social media companies — Twitter, Snap, Facebook, and Tik Tok — to take down “load driver” posts.
“Inaction only enables cartels to victimize countless youths and families,” wrote Ducey. “Just as your companies work to protect youth from obscenity and violence on your social media platforms, it’s time to protect them from criminal solicitation as well.”
It doesn’t appear the social media giants have taken action.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
For now, the residents and developers of a 20-story retirement community recently built in the heart of ASU’s flourishing entertainment district have silenced live music at a popular club, but the owners of Shady Park Tempe promise to appeal.
Mirabella at ASU is located across the street from Shady Park, a popular eatery – dance club where live music has been offered since 2015. But on April 13, a Maricopa County judge imposed several restrictions on the business, making it impossible for Shady Park to hold live music events, according to a company statement.
For its part, Shady Park sees an appeal of Judge Brad Astrowsky’s ruling as the only option to save the business after all these years.
“We remain hopeful that the court system will correct this injustice and that our appeal will allow us to once again host live music and provide a bit of joy and happiness to thousands of people every week,” the statement reads.
And owner Scott Price warns Shady Park will be forced to close down for good if Astrowsky’s ruling is upheld on appeal.
“This is because the revenue from shows is vital to our ability to pay for the other business operations,” Price said of the ruling, adding that “the power and influence of ASU was too much for us to overcome.”
Shady Park and other clubs in along East University Avenue have been in operation long before the Mirabella at ASU project broke ground. And there is no one who does not know that clubs and noise go hand in hand, particularly in a college community.
But ASU President Michael Crowe saw an opportunity to attract developers interested in taking advantage of ASU’s property tax exemption. Mirabella opened in December 2020 while several restaurants, clubs, theatres, and other “nightlife” businesses remained shuttered due to the economic effects of Gov. Doug Ducey’s various public health executive orders.
Once Shady Park reopened in May 2021, the folks at Mirabella complained about the noise. Price shutdown the live music while a canopy was constructed to help with the noise, but more complaints flooded in once live music started up again in September.
The lawsuit filed in October sought a preliminary injunction against Shady Park to prevent live music events which exceed Tempe’s “community standards” for noise. Then just before Astrowsky conducted a trial in February, Mirabella at ASU offered Shady Park “a large sum of money to close down and agree to let them take over our lease,” according to Shady Park.
The trial left many legal observers comparing the Mirabella residents to those who complain about noise after moving into a neighborhood that is in an airport’s well-established flight path. But the judge sided with the newcomers, ruling that residents made a substantial showing of harm caused by the Shady Park live concerts.
Astrowsky also faulted the efforts Shady Park took to address the noise complaints, saying there was “no credible evidence” that the canopy mitigated the noise.
“Shady Park never consulted an acoustical engineer or acoustic consultant,” the judge ruled. “Further, Shady Park did not perform any testing to determine how effective the canopy was at containing sound.”
Astrowsky was also not impressed with Shady Park’s arguments of the financial damage to the business if forced to turn down its music or construct an enclosure “to acoustically seal” the venue. The evidence presented about the impact was merely that of “speculative harm,” he ruled.
To rub salt into the wound, a post-ruling statement by Mirabella at ASU noted the “relief” Astrowsky brought to its residents and the surrounding community.
“We hope the court’s ruling results in peaceful coexistence moving forward and a celebration of a community that is inclusive and respectful of all,” the statement reads in part.
Shady Park says it has ceased all live music operations, “as the restrictions mandated make it impossible for us to hold live music events.” It could take a few weeks before an expedited appeal can be heard, leaving the company without vital revenue.
In the meantime, the ASU Foundation is benefiting richly from Mirabella at ASU, despite the impact to the local community and culture. It is a situation that is garnering scrutiny for other decisions by ASU, the Arizona Board of Regents, and President Crowe for using public tax-exempt property to benefit private businesses.
The Arizona Supreme Court recently ruled that a lawsuit filed by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich against the Regents and ASU can move forward to trial. In that case, the attorney general contends the 16-story Omni Hotel Tempe built on tax-exempt public property violates the Arizona Constitution’s Gift Clause prohibition on providing public monies for the benefit of non-public enterprises.
A jury trial about the ASU – Omni deal could be held as early as Spring 2023.
