US Federal Judge Halts Approval Of Abortion Pill

Posted by: lukwago J in world news April 8, 2023

A federal judge in the United States on Friday halted the approval of the abortion pill Mifepristone. The 67 page ruling by US district judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas allows the Joe Biden administration one week to appeal the decision according to court documents.

Kacsmaryk’s ruling is a preliminary injunction that would essentially ban the sale of mifepristone while the case before him continues.

The federal judge appointed to the bench by former president Donald Trump didn’t rule on the merits of the challenge.

The injunction will remain in place till the judge makes a final judgment. However some of the abortion providers said that if mifepristone is unavailable they would switch to a regimen using only misoprostol for medication abortion.

For anti abortion groups headed by the alliance for Hippocratic medicine and four anti abortion doctors sued the US food and drug administration in November last year contending the agency used improper process when it approved mifepristone back in 2000 and didn’t adequately consider the drug’s safety when used by girls under the age of 18 to terminate pregnancy.

Responding to the lawsuit, the Biden administration said the drug’s approval was well supported by science and that the challenge comes much too late.

Justice department strongly disagrees with the decision

However the vice president of US Kamala Harris said the ruling undermines the FDA’s ability to approve safe and effective medications based on science not politics.

However according to the US justice department ruled on Friday that it would appeal the ruling by judge Matthew Kacsmaryk adding it strongly disagrees with the decision as reported by AFP agency.

“ The justice department strongly disagrees with the decision…and will be appealing the court’s decision and seeking a stay pending appeal,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Meanwhile some of the planned parenthood which is one of the largest pro abortion groups in the US also slammed the Friday’s court ruling.

The federation president Alexis Mc Gill Johnson said in the statement that the judge’s decision in Texas today blocking the approval of mifepristone was an outrage and exposes the weaponisation of our judicial system to further restrict abortion nationwide.

Johnson added that people should be enraged that one judge can unilaterally reject medical evidence and overrule the FDA’s approval of medication that has been safely and effectively used for over 20 years.

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