A federal judge ruled Friday to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone, a drug used together to cause an abortion, virtually banning the sale of pills across the United States.
US district judge Matthew K Kacsmaryk signed an injunction directing the FDA to stay mifepristone’s approval while a lawsuit challenging the safety and approval of the drug continues. He is a Trump administration appointee in Amarillo, Texas.
However, the decision gives the Biden administration a week to appeal, which means the patients who use the medicine both for abortions and treating miscarriages will not be immediately impacted. The federal lawyers representing the FDA are expected to appeal against the ruling.
The FDA approved the pills for use in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy more than 20 years ago. Recently, it became the most common method of abortion in the USA, and away several people have circumvented state bans since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade in June last year.
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During the past few months, abortion-rights supporters and opponents have fought over the pills in state legislatures, regulatory agencies, and courts.
The lawsuit against the FDA was filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian conservative legal advocacy group, stating that the FDA exceeded its regulatory authority when it approved mifepristone in 2000.
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Kacsmaryk said that the FDA had “entirely failed to consider an important aspect of the problem by omitting any evaluation of the psychological effects of the drug or an evaluation of the long term-term medical consequences of the drug,” referring to mifepristone. Mifepristone was the first drug in the medication abortion process.
He also criticized that the drug was not tested for under-18 girls undergoing reproductive development.
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The anti-abortion doctors and medical associations against the FDA were seeking a preliminary injunction that would require the agency to withdraw or suspend its approval of the drug mifepristone. The judge did not suspend the approval of chemical abortion drugs or removed them from the list of approved drugs but he ordered a stay or hold on the approval of the drug.
