Federal judge transfers abortion pill lawsuit to Missouri, citing lack of Texas ties

By Diana Novak Jones
October 1, 20256:41 PM EDT • Updated October 1, 2025

Summary
• Texas judge sent case to Missouri over standing issues
• Transfer keeps case alive in new court

CHICAGO, Oct 1 (Reuters) - A Texas federal judge transferred a lawsuit seeking to restrict the availability of abortion pill mifepristone to a court in Missouri rather than ending it outright after finding that it no longer had enough ties to Texas to continue there.

In a ruling late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk agreed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that Missouri, Kansas and Idaho, which are leading the lawsuit, can’t pursue their claims in Texas federal court. … But rather than tossing the case altogether, Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by Republican President Donald Trumpduring his first term in office, transferred the case to the federal court in St. Louis.

The attorneys general of Missouri, Kansas and Idaho are arguing that the FDA acted improperly when it eased restrictions on mifepristone, including by allowing it to be prescribed remotely and dispensed by mail.

Emily Wales, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which covers Missouri, said in a statement that Kacsmaryk was sending the case to a district where many of the judges were previously attorneys in the Missouri attorney general's office, which has argued against abortion rights in the state. … U.S. District Judge Maria Lanahan, who was confirmed last month to the bench in the St. Louis court, worked on the case in her former role as the principal deputy solicitor general, as did another recent Trump appointee, U.S. District Judge Josh Divine, Missouri's former solicitor general. … "This case has always been about ideology, not patient safety," Wales said.

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Kacsmaryk Transfers Mifepristone Case To Court Made Up Of Mostly Trump Judges

Kate Riga
Wed, October 1, 2025 at 11:50 AM EDT
2 min read

Arch-conservative federal district court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, with much vitriol aimed at the Supreme Court, begrudgingly transferred a major attack on mifepristone’s legality out of his court Tuesday night — claiming to arbitrarily choose instead a district court composed almost entirely of Trump appointees. … “The Court need not strain to determine the best forum,” he hand waved, as he selected the Eastern District of Missouri.

A closer look at the court’s composition reveals his motives: Of the nine active, full-time district judges, seven of them are Trump appointees (alongside one George W. Bush appointee and one Obama appointee). Two of them (of at least four that worked for the Missouri attorney general before their judicial appointments) actually worked this specific case when it was at Kacsmaryk’s court.

Kacsmaryk, an anti-abortion crusader, was not happy to let the case go, even into the arms of likely ideological allies. His ruling is replete with potshots at the Supreme Court, which, in June of 2024, found 9-0 that the anti-abortion doctor group that brought the case lacked standing.

“Decades of Supreme Court precedent led every jurist who assessed this case to conclude that the Original Plaintiffs had a jurisdictionally valid case,” he wrote. “The Supreme Court reinterpreted those precedents and thereby ratified the Government’s contradictory arguments to hold otherwise.” … He later referred to the Court’s opinion as one decided “rightly or wrongly.”

He also had ire to spare for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), who he wrote could have kept the case at his court in the Northern District of Texas if he’d intervened. ..: “Had the Texas attorney general joined the intervenor plaintiffs’ motion to intervene back in November 2023, then this prong would be easily satisfied,” he wrote. “But for whatever reason, Texas neglected to do so,” he added, referring to “the attorney general’s oversight.”

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