The drug mifepristone is safe. In fact, what’s unsafe is its absence, as the lack of the crucial abortion-inducing drug will push women to have abortions in more dangerous ways, which is why it’s been FDA-approved for more than 20 years.
Not on the watch of Texas Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who Friday issued an injunction overruling this FDA approval, staying the order for seven days. It turned out that only a few hours were necessary to throw access into further uncertainty as Federal Judge Thomas Rice in Washington State issued a directly conflicting injunction ordering the government to maintain the drug’s status quo.
From the get-go, the Texas case should have been tossed without further ado and with prejudice. People can attempt to file litigation arguing anything they want, but the system is supposed to quickly dismiss frivolous suits, and this was as frivolous as it gets, a nakedly political effort where the ostensible legal arguments are an absurd pretext for an ideologically-driven, rights-restricting outcome, coming decades after the approval at issue.
