In a further limiting of the right to choose, a judge appointed to the bench by Donald Trump has halted approval of the abortion pill Mifeprex while a legal challenge proceeds.
The 67-page ruling on Friday by US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, allows the Biden administration one week to appeal, according to court documents.
A White House official said they are reviewing the ruling.
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 US 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 US for medication abortions, which account for more than half of all abortions in the country.
President Joe Biden’s administration, almost crtain to appeal the ruling, has said the drug’s approval was well supported by science, and that the challenge comes much too late.
-with AAP
