Judge in Washington orders feds to keep abortion pill access

Winnipeg takes a reputational beating sometimes and some of the criticism is deserved.

Concerns about public safety are real. Homelessness remains painfully visible. Too many people are struggling with addiction, poverty, mental illness and inadequate housing in plain sight.

Those concerns deserve to be taken seriously. But a city can be making measurable progress, struggling badly in other areas and still be reduced unfairly to its worst headlines. Winnipeg deserves neither denial nor caricature.

Take public safety.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A federal judge in Washington state on Friday ordered U.S. authorities not to make any changes that would restrict access to the abortion medication mifepristone in 17 Democratic-led states that sued over the issue, countering a ruling by a judge in Texas on the same day that ordered a hold on federal approval of the drug.

The dueling decisions threw into question access to the nation’s most common method of abortion, one that scientists have approved for use for decades.

U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a Trump administration appointee in Amarillo, Texas, signed an injunctio n directing the Food and Drug Administration to stay mifepristone’s approval while a lawsuit challenging the safety and approval of the drug continues. That ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom.

In Washington state, Spokane-based Judge Thomas O. Rice, an Obama administration appointee, partially granted a request from 17 states and the District of Columbia. While the states sued in an effort to expand access to the pill, Rice did not go that far — instead, he blocked the FDA from making any changes to the drug’s access in the states that sued.

At least three police cars were present at the under-construction Fairmont Winnipeg Thursday evening.

The nature of the response was unclear, but officers were guiding traffic outside of the construction zone at 2 Lombard Place while the response was underway. At 6:50 p.m., traffic was flowing normally.

Security on site provided no information on the response, but an individual working behind site fencing told the Free Press there’d be no comment from anyone on site as to why police were on scene at this time.

An SUV with a Government of Manitoba logo on its side was also present alongside personnel from Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health. However, it’s unknown if it’s connected to the police response.