Texas Judge Cancels FDA Approval of Key Abortion Pill Component

US District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a ruling invalidating the decades-old approval of a key component of the most common form of abortion pill in the US, mifepristone. The ruling, which fell in favor of anti-abortion activists, ends not only the initial approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but also recent policies meant to expand access to the drug. The move, some lawmakers, abortion rights advocates, and legal experts content, would undermine the agency’s independence.

According to Alice Miranda Ollstein, “Kacsmaryk’s decision, for its part, is a sweeping endorsement of arguments brought by anti-abortion groups and disputed by the government and major medical groups that the FDA failed to adequately consider the safety risks of the pills. Hitting back at arguments that it was inappropriate to allow a challenge to a medication that have been approved for decades, he also wrote that “the FDA stonewalled judicial review” and “ignored” petitions from anti-abortion organizations to revisit the pill’s approval.”

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(Source: April 7^th, 2023)