A federal judge in Texas has temporarily withdrawn approval for the use of mifepristone, one of two pills used for medication abortions, in a ruling set to have widespread effects on reproductive healthcare across the United States.
In a victory for anti-abortion advocates, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a 67-page ruling placing a stay on the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone, which would render sales of the widely used drug illegal.
The decision gives the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden seven days to appeal before the temporary ban goes into effect.
Kacsmaryk’s decision is considered to be the first instance of a single judge overruling the medical authority of the FDA. Shortly after the injunction was announced, a judge in Washington state, Thomas O Rice, issued another ruling that would block “any action to remove mifepristone from the market”.
The withdrawal of mifepristone’s FDA approval comes at the request of plaintiffs in a Texas case – a coalition of anti-abortion medical providers called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.
They filed a preliminary injunction to remove mifepristone from the market as they pursue a lawsuit that alleges the FDA was wrong to approve the drug more than 20 years ago.
The case is being heard before a federal court in Amarillo, Texas. The injunction would last for the duration of the case or until a successful appeal.
“Simply put, FDA stonewalled judicial review – until now,” Kacsmaryk wrote in his ruling to grant the injunction. He cited multiple attempts by the plaintiffs to pull mifepristone off the market. “Before Plaintiffs filed this case, FDA ignored their petitions for over 16 years.”
Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, has yet to rule on the plaintiffs’ overall lawsuit. It alleges the FDA failed “to abide by its legal obligations to protect the health, safety and welfare of women and girls” when it approved mifepristone and calls for the drug’s removal from the market.
The Biden administration has already signalled its willingness to challenge the ruling.
As she boarded a plane in Nashville, Tennessee, Vice President Kamala Harris said: “There is no question that the president and I are going to stand with the women of America and do everything we can to ensure that women have the ability to make decisions about their healthcare.”
Mifepristone has been available in the US since 2000 and…