US judge halts FDA approval of abortion pill mifepristone
- A Texas judge’s order throws into question access to the nation’s most common method of abortion in a ruling that waved aside decades of scientific approval
- The FDA and the Justice Department both filed appeals against the decision that Biden called an ‘ideological attack on women’s rights and freedoms’
A federal judge in Texas overturned the two-decade-old approval of a safe and effective abortion pill on Friday, the latest volley in a conservative battle against reproductive rights in the United States.
If it stands, the ruling by a Donald Trump appointee would reverse permission granted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a drug widely used to terminate unwanted pregnancies.
“The lawsuit, and this ruling, is another unprecedented step in taking away basic freedoms from women and putting their health at risk,” he said in a statement.
But, in an illustration of how deep the fracture on abortion runs in US society, a judge in Washington state moments later ruled in a separate case that access to the drug must be preserved in more than a dozen states.
The duelling legal opinions, along with the appeals, means the issue is almost certain to end up before the Supreme Court.