The U.S. Justice Department urged an appeals court on Monday to freeze a ruling by a federal judge in Texas that would ban a widely used abortion pill, a case likely to end up before the Supreme Court. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, overturned the Food and Drug Administration’s two‑decade‑old approval of mifepristone on Friday. The drug is used for more than half of the abortions performed annually in the United States. In a court filing, the Justice Department argued that “the district court’s extraordinary and unprecedented order should be stayed pending appeal.” It warned that allowing the order to take effect would “thwart FDA’s scientific judgment and severely harm women,” noting that the harm would be felt nationwide because mifepristone has lawful uses in every state. The department asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to stay the district judge’s order while the case proceeds.
The latest standoff over women’s reproductive rights comes almost a year after the conservative‑dominated Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion that had been in place for half a century. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, pledged last week to fight the ruling that would ban mifepristone, calling it “an unprecedented step in taking away basic freedoms from women and putting their health at risk.” He warned that it represents “the next big step toward the national ban on abortion that Republican‑elected officials have vowed to make law in America.” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean‑Pierre condemned the ruling as an “attack on FDA authority” and cautioned that it could “open the floodgates for other medications to be targeted and denied to people who need them.”
Shortly after the Texas decision, a judge in Washington state issued a contrasting ruling. District Judge Thomas Rice, appointed by President Barack Obama, held that access to mifepristone must be preserved, describing the drug as “safe and legal” and ordering the FDA to maintain access in more than a dozen states. The dueling opinions, combined with pending appeals, make it almost certain that the issue will reach the Supreme Court. Mifepristone is one component of a two‑drug regimen used in the United States through the first ten weeks of pregnancy. It has a long safety record, and the FDA estimates that 5.6 million Americans have used it to terminate pregnancies since its approval.
As the politically sensitive battle unfolded in the courts, governors of states where abortion remains legal moved to protect medication‑abortion access. California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an emergency stockpile of up to two million pills of misoprostol, which is used with mifepristone but can also induce abortion on its own. “We will not cave to extremists who are trying to outlaw these critical abortion services,” Newsom said. “Medication abortion remains legal in California.” In Massachusetts, Governor Maura Healey disclosed that the state had acquired 15,000 doses of mifepristone—enough for a year’s supply.
More than 250 executives from leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies signed a letter warning that a ruling by a judge with “no scientific training” undermines the FDA’s drug‑approval authority and creates uncertainty for the entire biopharma industry. Judge Kacsmaryk’s decision followed a coalition of anti‑abortion groups suing to freeze the national distribution of mifepristone. In his opinion, he adopted language used by abortion opponents, referring to providers as “abortionists” and describing the drug as used to “kill the unborn human.” He claimed the two‑drug regimen had caused “thousands of adverse events suffered by women and girls,” including intense bleeding and psychological trauma. However, the FDA, researchers, and the drugmaker maintain that decades of experience have proven the medication safe and effective when used as indicated. While staying the FDA’s 23‑year‑old approval, Kacsmaryk halted its enforcement for seven days to allow time for appeals.
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