- A Texas judge orders the FDA to pause mifepristone's approval
- The decision gives United States President Joe Biden's administration time to appeal
- Judge Matthew Kacsmark's order comes nearly a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade
A federal judge in Texas issued a ruling on the abortion drug mifepristone on Friday, stating that he will suspend the FDA's two-decade-old approval; however, he delayed his ruling for seven days to allow the federal government to file an appeal.
Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk's decision comes as mifepristone received FDA approval over two decades ago. The much-awaited ruling of the Texas judge on mifepristone came almost a year after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the constitutional right to abortion that has been in effect in the country since the early 1970s.
Texas Judge Stays Ruling on FDA Abortion Pill Approval
The judge held a key hearing in the case several weeks ago in Amarillo. However, the news of his decision only came down when many Americans were conducting religious observances. In a statement, Kacsmaryk noted that the court did not second-guess the FDA's decision-making but argued that the agency acquiesced on its legitimate safety concerns, as per CNBC.
He noted that this violated the agency's statutory duty and was based solely on unsound reasoning and studies that worked against its conclusions. Following the latest development, the case is expected to go before the Supreme Court.
The FDA, abortion pill manufacturer Danco Laboratories, and the anti-abortion group Alliance Defending Freedom all presented their arguments before the court during the case hearing. The latter represented a coalition of physicians who oppose abortion called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.
The group sued the FDA last November over the agency's approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine argued that officials abused their authority by approving mifepristone through an accelerated process for new drugs that assist patients with serious or life-threatening illnesses more than what was supposedly available.
The Texas judge's decision would allow the abortion pill to be available in the market for at least seven days. Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, was critical of Roe v. Wade, and his initial ruling, in this case, could lead to the most consequential abortion decision since the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe last June, according to the New York Times.
Joe Biden Administration Could Appeal the Case
On the other hand, a lawsuit was filed in Washington state against the FDA by a dozen Democratic attorneys general. Judge Thomas O. Rice in a preliminary injunction of the case, Judge Thomas O. Rice blocked the agency from taking "any action to remove mifepristone from the market or otherwise cause the drug to become less available."
There was also a bill passed by anti-abortion lawmakers through the Kansas Legislature on Friday that required medical professionals to inform patients that an abortion pill may be "reversed" after it started.
Massachusetts leaders reacted to Judge Kacsmaryk's ruling, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticizing the decision. In a series of Twitter posts, she said the ruling was a "lawless ruling by an extremist Republican judge." Also, she urged the Biden administration to appeal the case immediately.
Warren noted in a separate tweet that Kacsmaryk believes he knows better than several decades of scientific evidence. She argued that the decision could result in women losing access to a safe and legal medication that they have continued to rely on for many years, said the Boston Globe.
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