US Court Approves Abortion Drug for the Time Being with Limitations

Mifepristone, an abortion medicine, may continue be used in the US for the time being with some limitations, according to a decision made late on Wednesday by a federal appeals court. The process of ending a woman’s pregnancy is called an abortion. One restriction is that the medication can only be obtained by physically seeing a doctor. Another restriction reduces the drug’s existing 10-week usage window to the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Mifepristone was granted approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 23 years ago. The agency allowed women to get it by mail in 2016 and extended its use to ten weeks. Millions of women have used the medication in conjunction with misoprostol, another medication, to terminate their pregnancies, according to medical professionals.

A Texas lower court judge’s decision was limited by the appeals court’s opinion. The FDA’s approval of the medication was halted by that decision. The most common method of abortion in the United States will be restricted as a result of the medicine’s inability to be distributed over mail. Alliance Defending Freedom, the organization that initiated the Texas lawsuit against the pill, referred to the ruling of the federal appeals court as a “victory.” The organization was also active in last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that reversed Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to an abortion. In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland expressed that the Biden administration “strongly disagrees” with the ruling made by the appeals court.

Contradictory court rulings in the states of Texas and Oregon last Friday marked the beginning of the most recent abortion controversy. Last Friday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas issued an order to halt the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. The FDA was accused by anti-abortion organizations of following the wrong procedures while approving mifepristone in 2000, which led to the order. They claimed that when girls under the age of 18 used the medication to abort a pregnancy, the government did not adequately evaluate the drug’s safety. Kacsmaryk concurred with the groups opposed to abortion. He claimed that when the FDA authorized mifepristone, it disregarded safety concerns.