US courts issue rival rulings on halting abortion pill use

A Texas judge on Friday suspended approval of the widely used abortion pill mifepristone, dealing another setback to abortion rights in the United States.

Shortly after that ruling, another judge in Washington state issued a conflicting injunction, preventing federal regulators from altering access to the drug. 

Biden administration to 'fight'  Texas ruling

District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, issued the ruling, which will only come into effect after a week, thus giving the Biden administration time to file an emergency appeal. 

"The Court does not second-guess FDA’s decision-making lightly. But here, FDA acquiesced on its legitimate safety concerns — in violation of its statutory duty — based on plainly unsound reasoning and studies that did not support its conclusions," Kacsmaryk said in his ruling.

US President Joe Biden questioned the Texas court's decision in a statement, saying the drug had been safely used by millions of women for more than 22 years. He said the decision was "another unprecedented step in taking away basic freedoms from women and putting their health at risk."

"My administration will fight this ruling. The Department of Justice has already filed an appeal and will seek an immediate stay of the decision," Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.

The case in Texas was filed by four anti-abortion groups headed by the recently formed Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and four anti-abortion doctors who sued the FDA in November. 

In the Washington lawsuit, US District Court Judge Thomas Rice issued a preliminary order blocking the FDA from making any changes to the current availability of mifepristone. His ruling applied to the 17 states that sued.

What is mifepristone

Mifepristone is administered in combination with misoprostol for medication abortions in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. It accounts for more than half of all abortions in the USA.

 Some abortion providers have said that if mifepristone is unavailable, they will switch to a misoprostol-only regimen for a medication abortion, which is not as effective.

In January, the FDA said that the government will for the first time allow mifepristone to be dispensed at retail pharmacies.

Last year, a Supreme Court ruling overturned the constitutional right to abortion, in a polarizing judgement. Twelve out of the 50 US states have banned abortion outright, while some prohibit it after a certain period of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute. 

tg/kb  (AFP, AP, Reuters)