AUSTIN, Texas.- Access to the most widely used abortion method in the United States has been left in uncertainty due to conflicting court rulings about the legality of the pregnancy-terminating drug mifepristone, which has been available for more than 20 years.
For now, the drug approved in 2000 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will appear to remain available, at least for now, after separate rulings that two federal judges handed down in quick succession Friday. in Texas and Washington.
Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by Donald Trump during his presidency, ordered that federal approval of mifepristone be suspended in a decision that overturned decades of scientific approval. However, that decision was issued around the same time that U.S. Judge Thomas O. Rice, a President Barack Obama appointee, essentially ordered the opposite, ordering that federal authorities not make any changes that would restrict access to the drug in at least 17 states where Democrats sued in an attempt to protect availability.
The unusual timing of the two conflicting court decisions shows the weight the drug carries nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade and restrict access to abortion throughout the country. President Joe Biden said his administration would challenge the ruling issued in Texas.