The US government on Monday asked a federal appeals court to guarantee access to the abortion pill, the future of which is shrouded in uncertainty more than 20 years after it was authorized in the United States.
• Read also: The battle heats up over the abortion pill in the United States
• Read also: A federal judge suspends the abortion pill in the United States
A federal judge, located in Texas, offered a resounding victory to opponents of abortion on Friday, by suspending the marketing authorization for mifepristone (RU 486) throughout the United States.
However, he gave the authorities a week to appeal before his decision took effect.
As of Monday, the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden asked an appeals court, located in New Orleans, to intervene: this “extraordinary and unprecedented judgment” must “be blocked pending the substantive examination of the file, the Ministry of Justice wrote to him.
He asked this court, known for its conservative majority, to decide before Thursday noon, in order to give him time, in the event of failure, to turn urgently to the Supreme Court of the United States.
In its appeal, the government recalls that more than 5 million women have used mifepristone, combined with another cachet since its authorization by the American Medicines Agency (FDA) in 2000.
When it is taken according to the instructions, “serious side effects are extremely rare”, of the same order as for a very classic drug like ibuprofen, he pleads, regretting that the court decided to to deprive patients of it “on the basis of its own erroneous assessment of the risks”.
BigPharma
Echoing those criticisms, the White House spokeswoman said Monday that the move “attacks the authority of the FDA.” It risks “opening the floodgates for challenging other drugs”, warned Karine Jean-Pierre.
The executives of 250 pharmaceutical companies, including the giants Pfizer or Biogen, also blasted, in an open letter, a judgment which “creates uncertainty for the pharmaceutical industry as a whole” by “ignoring decades of scientific evidence. “.
A coalition of opponents to abortion had filed a complaint in November against the FDA to challenge the approval given to mifepristone. Strategically, they had filed their appeal in Amarillo, Texas, where the only federal judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, was appointed by Donald Trump after working as a lawyer for an ultra-conservative Christian organization.
This magistrate agreed with them on the evening of Good Friday by taking up all their arguments. In particular, he assured, despite the scientific consensus, that mifepristone posed risks to the health of women. He also preferred the term “unborn human” to that of “fetus” and evoked “abortors” to speak of the structures practicing terminations of pregnancy.
Anticipating its decision, a coalition of Democratic states had seized another court at the end of February to try to preserve this pill which, taken in connection with misoprostol, today represents 53% of abortions in the United States.
Less than an hour after Judge Kacsmaryk’s decision, one of his colleagues, Judge Thomas Rice, appointed by Barack Obama and sitting in Washington State, found that mifepristone was “safe and effective” and prohibited the FDA to withdraw its approval in the 17 appealing states.
Inventory
On Monday, citing “a strong tension” between the two judgments, the federal government sent “a request for clarification” to the Washington State court to find out how it should apply its decision, if the judgment of Judge Kacsmaryk was authorized to come into force.
Without taking these precautions, several elected officials on the left have called on President Biden to ignore the Texas decision and ensure that mifepristone remains on the market.
Pending the outcome of this legal slump, several Democratic states have taken the lead in stockpiling abortion pills. Washington State ordered 30,000 doses of mifepristone, Massachusetts State purchased 15,000 doses.
In California, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he had stockpiled two million tablets of misoprostol. This drug is usually used with mifepristone, but can also be used alone, with a somewhat lower rate of effectiveness and more side effects.
Several clinics are preparing to change their protocols to administer this substance alone if mifepristone becomes inaccessible, the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents them in court, said on Monday.