Judge revokes approval for abortion pills

A federal judge in Texas (USA) ruled that the approval was revoked mifespristone abortion pill at the national level.

He Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the drug be revoked in 2000.

The ruling, however, gives the legal representatives of Joe Biden’s government a deadline of one week to appeal the decision.

In the court text, the judge states that The FDA violated due process in approving mifepristone and that he did not take into account the “negative impact” of the drug on the health of people who take it.

“The FDA completely failed to address an important aspect of the problem by omitting any assessment of the drug’s psychological effects or assessment of the long-term medical consequences of the drug“, Judge Kacsmaryk wrote in the document.

In 2000, the FDA approved mifepristone as an abortion method. Together with misoprostol, these two drugs are known as the “abortion pill.” or medical abortion.

The Vice President Kamala Harriswho championed reproductive rights in the Biden administration, said the court decision sets a “dangerous precedent.”

“It is against good public policy to allow the courts and politicians to tell the FDA what to do,” Harris said. to journalists in Tennessee, according to the American media.

Planned Parenthood, the largest network of reproductive services clinics in the US.in a statement, he rejected the verdict stating that it was an “unprecedented and deeply harmful measure”.

“A Texas judge’s decision to block the FDA’s approval of mifepristone is an insult and reveals how the justice system is being used as a weapon to further restrict abortion at the national level”, the president of the association said in a statement.

On its part, the conservative organization Alliance Defending Freedomwho filed the lawsuit stemming from the ruling, hailed the move as a “significant victory” for doctors and medical associations who had opposed FDA approval.

“By illegally approving dangerous abortion drugs, The FDA has put women and girls at risk and it is time for the agency to be held accountable for its reckless actions,” the organization said in a statement.

Since the US Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Gazitithat protected abortion access nationwide last June, use of the two pills has soared, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

According to this organization’s report, medical abortions represented 54% of all abortions in the country in 2022.