AMARILLO, Texas (KXAN) — U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a ruling on Friday in a lawsuit brought by Christian activist group Alliance Defending Freedom against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, declaring a stay or hold on the FDA’s approval of the medication mifepristone.
The order is itself stayed “for seven days to allow the federal government to seek emergency relief from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit” or the Supreme Court of the United States.
Kacsmaryk, the former deputy general counsel Christian nonprofit First Liberty Institute, laid out his thoughts on the case in a 67-page Memorandum Order and Ruling.
“If the Fifth Circuit reverses this Court’s Section 705 analysis, the Court clarifies that it alternatively would have ordered Defendants to suspend the chemical abortion approval and all subsequent challenged actions related to that approval until the Court can render a decision on the merits,” writes Kacsmaryk in his opinion and ruling.
The full ruling can be read below:
What is Mifepristerone?
The FDA approved mifepristone in September 2000 for the medical termination of pregnancy up to seven weeks after conception. In 2016, the agency extended this to up to 10 weeks of gestation.
Mifepristone is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medications as a uterotonic, a medication that can induce contractions. France approved the medication in 1988, and it is legal in over 80 other countries.
The medication, frequently called an “abortion pill,” can cause a pregnancy to terminate on its own. However, when used for an abortion, it is typically used with the medication misoprostol. It is also used to induce labor and, after miscarriages, and to treat postpartum depression, Cushing’s syndrome and uterine leiomyomas (benign tumors in the uterus).
Abortion Pill provider
Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, director of AidAccess (an initiative that provides mifepristone and misoprostol via mail), said that the ruling is another blow for reproductive health in an “already pretty grim landscape” and a bad faith ruling.
“The court system in the U.S. is pretty broken, it’s corrupted and it doesn’t follow good legal or scientific practice,” Gomperts said.
Mifepristone, according to Gomperts, is safer than over-the-counter painkillers or an unmedicated miscarriage. She also said that the medication has been used by millions of people around the world.
“We already know that people won’t have the money to travel to other states and to pay for surgical abortion in other states where it might still be legal,” Gomperts said. “It’s only going to affect the people without money. The wives of these judges and the daughters of these judges that make these rulings, or the politicians that call for the rulings, they are not affected. Nobody will know, they’ll just go to California and they’ll have their abortion.”
Texas’ post-Dobbs abortion ban led to AidAccess receiving 11 times more requests for abortion pills. She encourages people to obtain the medications and hold onto them in case of future need, as one might store painkillers in case of a headache.
“It’s the war on women,” Gomperts said. “You have to prepare. If a war is waged against you, you make sure you have enough supplies.”