Texas judge suspends FDA approval of major abortion pill
Abigail Adcox
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A federal judge in Texas has halted the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a pill involved in roughly half of abortions nationwide, a decision that will likely reduce the availability of abortions in states where the procedure is legal.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that the agency’s decades-old approval of mifepristone, the first of two abortion-inducing drugs used to terminate a pregnancy through 10 weeks, should be suspended. The ruling gives the Biden administration a week to appeal.
A TEXAS JUDGE COULD REMOVE A KEY ABORTION DRUG FROM THE MARKET
Several anti-abortion medical associations, including the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, as well as four doctors, had argued that the FDA went beyond its regulatory authority in approving mifepristone back in 2000.
The FDA has repeatedly said that the abortion medication is a safe and effective alternative to surgical abortions. The American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and other medical associations have said in a court filing that reversing mifepristone’s approval would “cause profound and irreparable harm to patients across the country.”
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It’s unclear the scope of the effects of taking mifepristone off the market, though abortion rights groups had previously warned it could force abortion clinics to switch to surgical abortions only, which could inundate many facilities.