However, the decision issued on Friday (local time) is only to come into force in seven days in order to give the authority responsible for approving medicines the opportunity to appeal against the decision. US Attorney General Merrick Garland promptly announced on Friday that his ministry would be appointed.
US President Joe Biden also announced that his government would take action against the decision. Observers assume that the case will end up before the US Supreme Court.
Mifepristone is one of two drugs commonly used together for medical termination of pregnancy in the United States. Should it lose approval, so would states where abortion is legal. Opponents of abortion had sued against the approval of the drug.
Most important judgment in the fight for the right to abortion
The Texas verdict is seen as the most important ruling in the fight for abortion rights in the United States since the Supreme Court overturned nationwide abortion rights in a historic decision in June. According to the Guttmacher Institute, which specializes in reproductive health, more than half of all abortions in the United States are medical. The ban makes access to such an intervention more difficult, critics warned.
The Texas court decision contradicts the FDA’s expert judgment that mifepristone is “safe and effective,” Garland said on Friday. The Justice Department will continue to defend the FDA’s decision. In addition, the ministry wants to examine a decision from the state of Washington.
Just an hour after the Texas judge’s decision, another federal court in Washington state issued a conflicting decision, requiring the regulator not to make any changes to access to the drug, according to a report by The New York Times.
Criticism of President Biden
President Biden criticized the Texas court’s decision as “another unprecedented step” that robs women of fundamental freedoms and puts their health at risk. If passed, “it would bar women in all states from access to the drug,” regardless of whether abortion is legal in a state.
Mifepristone was approved in the United States in 2000 and has traditionally been used in conjunction with the drug misoprostol for abortions. Misoprostol can also be used alone for abortion. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends this approach when mifepristone is unavailable. According to the Guttmacher Institute, it’s unclear how many doctors would switch to this method. Physicians in the United States have less experience with this, epidemiologist Heidi Moseson told Nature.
Abortion rights are one of the most controversial political issues in the United States. Above all, the religious right and large parts of the Republican party have been trying for decades to restrict or even abolish this right. The judge in the current case, Matthew Kacsmaryk, was appointed by former President Donald Trump. Critics fear the ruling could open the door to further bans on abortion drugs or even the coronavirus vaccine.
