Federal Judge Halts Regulators’ Approval of Abortion Pill

A federal judge paused federal regulators’ approval of the abortion pill “mifepristone” while a legal challenge proceeds.

According to court documents, the 67-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, allows the Biden administration one week to appeal the decision.

Used with another drug called misoprostol, mifepristone is approved to terminate a pregnancy within the first 10 weeks of a pregnancy.

From Newsmax:

Kacsmaryk's ruling is a preliminary injunction that would essentially ban sales of mifepristone while the case before him continues. The judge, who was 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 have said that if mifepristone is unavailable, they would switch to a regimen using only misoprostol for a medication abortion. However, the misoprostol-only regimen is not as effective, and it is not yet clear how widely available it would be.

Four anti-abortion groups headed by the recently formed Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and four anti-abortion doctors sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November. They contended the agency used an improper process when it approved mifepristone in 2000 and did not adequately consider the drug's safety when used by girls under age 18 to terminate a pregnancy.

Mifepristone is part of the regimen in the United States for medication abortions, which account for more than half of all abortions in the country.

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