Abortion drug case: Judge keeps hearing plans out of public view for now, Washington Post reports

CNN
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A federal judge has set a hearing for next week in a blockbuster case of medical abortion in Texas, but took a series of highly unusual measures to delay informing the public that such a hearing was planned, The Washington Post reported.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who is hearing the case, held a private call Friday with attorneys in the case and scheduled the hearing for Wednesday, according to the Post. The appeal was not publicly noted on the case file, and the judge did not issue a public order announcing that Wednesday’s hearing had been set. The case is not under seal.

In the case, anti-abortion doctors are asking the judge – a person named by former President Donald Trump – to rescind federal government approval in 2000 pills used to terminate a pregnancy. Such a move could cut nationwide access to the most common method of abortion.

Kacsmaryk told lawyers on the call, according to the newspaper, that he would delay the public announcement of Wednesday’s hearing until Tuesday evening, to limit disruption and potential protests during the proceedings. He also asked that attorneys on the appeal — who would have included Justice Department attorneys who are defending the drug’s approval, attorneys for anti-abortion activists who are challenging it, and attorneys for a company that distributes the drug and intervened in the case – not to release the hearing plans until then.

The judge’s efforts to limit transparency around Wednesday’s hearing are part of a case that has major consequences for abortion access and is arguably the biggest legal battle over the procedure since the Supreme Court overturned national abortion protections in a judgment last June.

Voicemails left by CNN Sunday morning with the court clerk’s office and with Kacsmaryk Chambers about the Post’s Saturday night report were not immediately returned.

The case takes place in Amarillo — a remote forensic division in North Texas that’s several hours away from the state’s largest cities and has only limited direct flight routes. Federal court proceedings are generally held in public.