Abortion Pill

Texas federal judge halts US approval of abortion pill mifepristone

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The 67-page ruling by US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo allows the Biden administration one week to appeal the decision, according to court documents.

A federal judge in the United States on Friday (April 7) halted the approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. The 67-page ruling by US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas allows the Joe Biden administration one week to appeal the decision, according to court documents.

Kacsmaryk’s ruling is a preliminary injunction that would essentially ban the sale of mifepristone while the case before him continues, according to a report by the news agency Reuters. The judge, appointed to the bench by former president Donald Trump, did not rule on the merits of the challenge. The injunction will remain in place until the judge makes a final judgment or it is reversed on appeal.

Some abortion providers said that if mifepristone is unavailable, they would switch to a regimen using only misoprostol for a medication abortion, Reuters reported. 

Four anti-abortion groups, headed by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and four anti-abortion doctors, sued the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November last year, contending the agency used improper process when it approved mifepristone back in 2000 and did not adequately consider the drug’s safety when used by girls under the age of 18 to terminate pregnancy.

Mifepristone is part of the regimen in the US for medication abortions, which accounts for over half of all abortions in the country.

Responding to the lawsuit, the Biden administration said the drug’s approval was well supported by science, and that the challenge comes much too late. Vice President Kamala Harris said the ruling  undermines the FDA’s “ability to approve safe and effective medications… based on science, not politics.”

Justice department vows to appeal the ruling

The US Justice department said on Friday that it would appeal the ruling by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, adding it strongly disagrees with the decision, the news agency AFP reported. 

“The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the decision…and will be appealing the court’s decision and seeking a stay pending appeal,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood, which is one of the largest pro-abortion groups in the US, also slammed Friday’s court ruling. 

“The judge’s decision in Texas today blocking the (Food and Drug Administration’s) approval of mifepristone is an outrage and exposes the weaponisation of our judicial system to further restrict abortion nationwide,” the federation’s President Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement. 

Johnson said that people should be enraged that one judge can unilaterally reject medical evidence and overrule the FDA’s approval of a medication that has been safely and effectively used for over 20 years. 

“This decision could threaten the FDA’s role in this country’s public health system, and — if allowed to stand — will have broad and unprecedented consequences that reach far beyond abortion,” Johnson added. 

Spike in Interest in Abortion Pill After SCOTUS Leak

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A growing number of people are contacting Aid Access, a telehealth service that helps U.S. women obtain abortion pills, apparently in response to reports the U.S. Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade.

Christie Pitney of Forward Midwifery, a Washington D.C. telehealth practice that works with Aid Access, told Reuters the Aid Access website had 38,530 visitors asking for prescriptions or information on Tuesday, compared to only 1,290 visitors on Monday. She called the increase “insanely higher numbers.”

The surge in interest came immediately after the publication on Monday of a leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court saying a majority of justices think Roe v. Wade should be reversed. If that happens, the decision about whether to allow abortion would be left up to the individual states.

Abortion pills are considered a way around state restrictions because patients don’t have to go to a clinic. They can have a telehealth consultation at home and receive the pills through the mail.

Twenty U.S. states allow abortion bills to be prescribed after a patient has a telehealth conference with Austria-based Aid Access or an affiliated practice, Reuters said. Prescribers such as Pitney then order the prescription through a local pharmacy.

Reuters said Aid Access is trying to add providers in four more states. Of the remaining states, 19 ban or restrict using telehealth to prescribe abortion pills. Reuters said Aid Access gets around these restrictions by working with European doctors who prescribe abortion pills via a mail-order pharmacy in India, Reuters said.

The pills are manufactured by GenBioPro and Danco Laboratories for the U.S. market, Reuters said.

“I have talked to a number of clinicians who are stocking up (on the pills) to make sure that they have access to it,” Pitney said.

The Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, said in February that 54% of all U.S. abortions were done with medication in 2020. That’s the first time medication abortions comprised more than half of all U.S. abortions.