Amid the fight for a blanket ban on abortion in the US, a federal judge in Texas has overturned the approval for the abortion pill mifepristone in the United States. Arch-conservative Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk also said the decision would not come into effect for a week, to give federal authorities time for a possible appeal. Mifepristone is used in more than one in two abortions in the United States.
The federal judge appointed by ex-President Donald Trump upheld a lawsuit by anti-abortionists once morest the FDA, which approved the pill mifepristone more than 20 years ago. The plaintiffs accused the FDA of putting “politics over science” and approving a “dangerous” drug without adequate testing.
In early March, US President Joe Biden’s administration warned once morest a ban on the abortion pill. “This move would be devastating for women,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time. The US government is working to “be prepared for any possible outcome”.
Politicians from Biden’s Democratic Party immediately sharply criticized the federal judge’s decision on Friday. “This ruling opens a new door to the politicization of medicine,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote on Twitter. “Extremists will not stop abolishing abortion rights.” Senator Elizabeth Warren warned that women might now “lose access to a safe and legal drug they’ve come to rely on for decades.”
According to the US Food and Drug Administration, more than 5.6 million women have used the pill since it was approved in 2000. In less than 1,500 cases there were complications without a link to mifepristone being established.
Mifepristone is used in the US in combination with the drug misoprostol for abortions. Many women prefer a medical abortion to an instrumental intervention.
Abortion rights are one of the most controversial and contested socio-political issues in the United States. The country’s Supreme Court abolished the country’s basic right to abortion last June – a ruling that triggered a political earthquake. With the decision of the Supreme Court, US states were given the right to massively restrict or ban abortions. Many conservative states have already done so.
