(CNSNews.com) - Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra says the Biden administration intends to "do everything" it can to make sure the abortion-producing drug mifepristone continues to be available to women for their "health care, especially abortion care."
"Every option is on the table," he said, when CNN's Dana Bash asked him if the Biden administration will ignore a nationwide ban on the drug, if a Texas judge's ruling holds.
"So it is incumbent upon us as a country to make sure women have safe and effective medication available to them," Becerra told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
On Friday, two federal judges issued conflicting opinions on mifepristone, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000.
A federal judge in Texas stayed the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, agreeing to block its availability nationwide, but delayed the stay for seven days to give the federal government time to appeal the decision, which it is doing.
Around the same time, a federal judge in Washington State issued a preliminary injunction blocking the FDA from "altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone."
Becerra noted that the Biden administration has already filed an appeal of the Texas judge's ruling: "One judge in one court in one state turned upside down the FDA's approval process for safe and effective medications. We have to go to court and seek an appeal," he said.
Becerra said women must continue to have access to a drug that's "proven itself safe."
Host Dana Bash asked Becerra, "Will you recommend the FDA ignore a ban" on mifepristone?
"Everything is on the table," Becerra said. "The president said that way back when the Dobbs decision came out. Every option is on the table."
He agreed there is a "good chance" the question will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.
"So how worried are you that this court, conservative majority in the United States Supreme Court, will agree with the Texas judge?" Bash asked him.
"If the role of judges of justices is to apply the law to the facts and the evidence, the facts and the scientific evidence are that mifepristone is not just safe, but it's effective and it was properly approved.
"And so I don't care who the nine justices are on the Supreme Court or any court of appeal. They should be able to discern the difference between inserting their personal judgment and using the facts and evidence to make a legal ruling."
Asked for his "message" to women who want to take the drug and doctors who want to prescribe it, Becerra said, "This is not America. What you saw by that one judge in that one court, in that one state, that's not America.
"America goes by the evidence. America does what's fair. America does what is transparent and we can show that what we do is for the right reasons. That's not America."
Becerra argued that by second-guessing the FDA's approval process for mifepristone, "you're not talking about just mifepristone. You're talking about every kind of drug. You're talking about our vaccines. You're talking about insulin. You're talking about the new Alzheimer's drugs that may come on.
"If a judge decides to substitute his preference, his personal opinion for that of scientists and medical professionals, what drug isn't subject to some kind of legal challenge? So we have to go to court. And, for America's sake and for women's sake, we have to prevail in this."