When their lawsuit against government drug regulators is argued, a Texas courtroom will be the latest battleground for US abortion rights hoping for a national ban on a widely used abortion pill.
Anti-abortion activists are targeting the prescription drug mifepristone in their campaign to end the practice entirely, following the US Supreme Court’s decision to end the right to abortion nationwide last June.
The lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) targets a pill that is involved in 53% of all abortions in the US, or more than 500,000 each year.
While the FDA has never been challenged on its approval of a drug that has proven safe and effective, the plaintiffs, a coalition of anti-abortion groups, believe they can win a national freeze on mifepristone distribution.
Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a deeply conservative Christian with a personal history of opposition to abortion and a court record of favoring right-wing causes, will preside over the case in federal court in Amarillo, Texas.
Mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortion, has been used to terminate pregnancies by an estimated 5.6 million women since its approval, according to the FDA.
It has a long track record of safety, and the FDA estimates that 5.6 million Americans have used it to end pregnancies since its approval.
However, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian advocacy group, filed a lawsuit against the FDA, claiming that the FDA’s approval of mifepristone “disavow(ed)” science, “ignored” potential health effects, and “disregarded” the complications that can occur with its use.
“When the FDA chose politics over science and approved chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States, it failed America’s women and girls,” they said.
The FDA has requested that the judge deny the request.
“The public interest would be significantly harmed by effectively withdrawing from the market a safe and effective drug that has been lawfully on the market for 22 years,” it said.
