Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) is daring Joe Biden to make his day. When the ruling came down from U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk in Texas on Friday that suspended the sale and use of the medical abortion pill, mifepristone, a competing opinion was issued just hours later. While Kacsmaryk challenged the FDA’s approval of mifepristone as safe and effective, U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice in Washington State preserved the status quo. A federal appeals court is expected to rule this week after DOJ appealed the Texas court ruling on Monday.

Justice Department on Monday appealed a Texas court ruling that would halt approval of a drug used in the most common method of abortion in the U.S., calling the decision “extraordinary and unprecedented.” The Supreme Court will likely end up with the case. As could be predicted, Democrats were quick to offer hot takes on the Texas ruling, including suggesting that Biden simply ignore the judge’s injunction. America’s most famous bartender, AOC, was particularly keen on that idea as she said during an interview on CNN Friday night.

“I believe that the Biden administration should ignore this ruling,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., Ny.) said on CNN on Friday night. AOC went on to condemn “deeply partisan” judges that have “engaged in unprecedented and dramatic erosion of the legitimacy of the courts,” adding that skepticism surrounding mifepristone was “unfounded.”

“The interesting thing when it comes to a ruling is that it relies on enforcement,” the New York representative noted. “And it is up to the Biden administration to enforce, to choose whether or not to enforce a ruling.”

AOC: I believe that The Biden Administration should ignore this ruling. The courts rely on the legitimacy of their rulings and what they are currently doing is engaging in an unprecedented erosion of their legitimacy pic.twitter.com/Szx9xXYBNN

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 8, 2023

I’m not sure why the segment producer used AOC as a legal voice on the Texas ruling but that is what the audience got. It’s interesting that in AOC’s viewpoint, the president can decide which rulings he has to abide by and enforce. That’s not how this works. Joe Biden is president, not king. Imagine if the tables were turned and a Republican president (especially Trump) decided to ignore a judge’s ruling and was encouraged to do so by Republican politicians. As she mentioned, it wasn’t her idea, it came from progressive Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).

This devastating ruling has no basis in law and will ban the most common method of abortion in EVERY single state.

President Biden can and must ignore this ruling and keep mifepristone on the market and accessible for every woman in America. https://t.co/g5fyYI4zkr

— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) April 7, 2023

What happened to the rule of law, guys? As is always true, the internet is forever. There’s a tweet to counter Wyden’s lunacy. His tune was different back in 2017.

This you? pic.twitter.com/yEtqcj5Pci

— pennsyltuckian (@pennsyltuckian1) April 8, 2023

By Sunday, Rep. Tony Gonzales was on CNN’s State of the Union. He spoke up for the Texas judge’s ruling, as a strongly pro-life man, and said if the Democrats convince Joe Biden to just ignore the Texas ruling, he’ll move forward with defunding the FDA. How does that sound? House Republicans have the power of the purse.

“If the administration wants to not live up to this ruling, then we’re going to have a problem,” the Texas Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It may come to a point where House Republicans on the appropriation side have to defund FDA programs that don’t make sense.”

Gonzales, the father of six children, described himself as a “prolific pro-lifer,” and said Texas and other states have the right to dictate their futures.

And even with the ruling on the pill coming from a federal judge, Gonzales said the states “started this,” but now the federal government is dictating its own agenda.

“We have to get back and allow our institutions to lead,” he said. “We can’t undermine them when we don’t agree with things that are there, whether it’s on the state level.”

Lawmakers don’t have any business in the drug approval industry but I admit that I appreciate a Republican who remembers the power of the House is in its purse strings. Maybe not completely eliminate the FDA but how about the Department of Education? There are lots of departments that could use elimination, if, like me, you think the federal government is way too big and overbearing in the lives of Americans. We have Jimmy Carter to thank for the monstrosity that is the Department of Education. Government departments never get eliminated, they only grow bigger.

Democrats aren’t the only ones suggesting Biden just ignore the judge’s ruling. A Republican, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, also said, “We have, over the last nine months, not shown compassion toward women,” as she suggested the ruling be ignored.

“It’s not up to us to decide as legislators or even, you know, as the court system whether this is the right drug to use or not,” Mace told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday. “I agree with ignoring it at this point… this thing should just be thrown out quite frankly.”

“This is an issue that Republicans have been largely on the wrong side of,” she said. “We have, over the last nine months, not shown compassion toward women, and this is one of those issues that I’ve tried to lead on as someone who’s pro-life and just have some common sense.”

Mace said there’s “no basis” for the ruling, explaining that the Texas judge cited a Supreme Court decision, which was later overturned, for his decision.

“We are getting it wrong on this issue,” she said. “We’ve got to show some compassion to women, especially women who’ve been raped. We’ve got to show compassion on the abortion issue because by and large most Americans aren’t with us on this issue.”

I do agree that the Republican Party needs better messaging on abortion, especially as we head into 2024. The Democrats are going to beat us to death with the issue, as they did in the midterm elections. We can’t let them make every election about abortion. Jazz was making that point in his post yesterday. I think it is important and should be discussed. Republicans are the pro-life party and we need to encourage others to move back to that position. Until then, we need to strike a tone that is welcoming, not punishing, of women. Hardline restrictions on abortion isn’t the most commonly held position among voters. Most women don’t even know they are pregnant at six weeks. The most commonly accepted cut-off is at 15-16 weeks. There are three exceptions that most people accept – rape, incest and threat to the health of the mother. None of that is unreasonable, in my opinion. We can be happy that the Supreme Court ruled that abortion is a state issue, not a federal one. The United States has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the world. That isn’t anything to be proud of. In the meantime, there are lots of issues the Republican House can be working on. About the Department of Education…

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