The Far-Reaching Implications of the Potential Abortion Pill Ban

February 24, 2023

A court case that will determine the fate of nationwide access to the a pill used to induce abortions and treating miscarriage may trigger a sea change in the pharmaceutical industry in the US. If the far right-wing judge presiding over the case, a Donald Trump appointee, rules in favor of rescinding the approval of mifepristone, it will set a precedent that court cases can overrule drug approvals by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

According to Eric Goodman, “The outcome depends not only on the judge’s ruling, but how he writes it. It will almost certainly be appealed. It may well end up at the Supreme Court, in front of the same justices that overturned Roe. In other words, abortion pills are teetering on the edge of a legal precipice. If they fall, that would entail the immediate loss of the safest, most effective, least invasive method of first-trimester abortion, which is also the safest, most effective, least invasive method of treating miscarriage, an exceedingly common issue. But that could affect all sorts of other drugs — from those that have been prescribed for decades to those that haven’t even been developed yet. Let mifepristone go over, and any medicine could end up wobbling on that cliff, too.”

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