A federal judge on Friday handed another resounding victory to abortion opponents in the United States, withdrawing marketing authorization for an abortion pill approved for more than 20 years and used each year by half a million Americans.
Ten months after the landmark Supreme Court ruling that gave each US state the freedom to ban pregnancy terminations on its soil, magistrate Matthew Kacsmaryk, known for his ultra-conservative views, issued, from Texas, a decision supposed to apply to the whole country.
At the same time, one of his colleagues, located in the State of Washington, however judged that the marketing authorization for mifepristone (RU 486), which is used in combination with another cachet, could not be withdrawn in at least twelve Democratic states.
It will therefore quickly be up to the Supreme Court, profoundly overhauled by former Republican President Donald Trump, to clarify the situation.
Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling won’t go into effect for a week anyway, as the magistrate opted to give the federal government time to likely appeal.
In his 67-page judgment, he validates most of the arguments contained in the complaint filed in November by a coalition of doctors and organizations hostile to abortion against the American Medicines Agency (FDA).
Like them, he resumes studies on the risks attributed to the abortion pill, although they are considered negligible by the majority of the scientific community. He also accuses the FDA of failing to follow its procedures in order to meet a political objective.
“There is evidence that the FDA faced intense political pressure to waive its safety precautions in order to promote the political goal of expanding access to abortion,” he wrote.
” Ashamed “
“It’s shameful,” reacted Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the powerful family planning organization Planned Parenthood, which runs many clinics practicing voluntary terminations of pregnancy in the country, and also denounced a “deeply harmful” decision.
“We should all be outraged that a judge could unilaterally reject medical evidence” to contradict the FDA, she added, stressing that this decision could have consequences “far beyond abortion”.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer criticized “an activist judge who acts outside the law and sets a dangerous precedent”.
Matthew Kacsmaryk was a lawyer for a Christian organization before being appointed federal judge by former Republican President Donald Trump.
Conversely, abortion opponent group SBA Prolife America hailed “a victory for the health and safety of women and girls.” Its Director of Political Affairs Katie Glenn said “closely analyze” the second judgment, “but we are hopeful that the dangerous disregard for women’s lives displayed for two decades by the FDA will soon be corrected”.
Even if justice ultimately suspended the FDA’s authorization, it would probably take several months before its decision applies. According to health law experts, the drug regulator must follow a strict procedure before withdrawing the authorization of a product.
Women and doctors could also fall back on a second pill, misoprostol, the use of which is combined today with mifepristone for greater efficiency and less pain.
“We will not let this unfair decision prevent access to abortion pills”, which via “alternative routes” may “always arrive in your mailboxes”, has already indicated Elisa Wells, founder of the Plan network. C information on abortion pills.