A new ruling by a U.S. district court judge in Texas has stripped the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the medication abortion pill, mifepristone.
A federal judge in Texas on Friday ruled to suspend the abortion drug mifepristone, which was approved by regulators 23 years ago and has now become one of the most common methods of abortion in the country.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled to suspend the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. The ruling is paused for seven days so the federal government may appeal.
Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, held a hearing on the issue on March 15 in Amarillo, Texas, where the conservative plaintiffs in the case argued the Food and Drug Administration was wrong to approve mifepristone.
The report continues:
Erik Baptist, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, the group that filed the Texas lawsuit, said after the March hearing that the judge needed to provide a check on the FDA, which he said ignored safety concerns with mifepristone — an allegation the government and most medical doctors refute.
“The FDA never had the authority to approve these drugs and remove important safeguards,” Baptist said.
Government lawyers defending the FDA said at the hearing that the government has reviewed extensive data and found no such safety concerns.
“The public interest would be dramatically harmed” by siding with the plaintiffs, said Julie Straus Harris, an attorney for the Justice Department, while Baptist urged the judge: “Relief must be complete and nationwide.”
The ruling Friday comes less than a month after Wyoming became the first U.S. state to ban the abortion pill on March 18, when Governor Mark Gordon signed into law the bill passed by the state’s majority-Republican legislature, as RedState reported.
As this is breaking news, RedState will provide more details as they become available.
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