Appeals court to weigh fate of abortion pill
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An appeals court will hear arguments in a case that could help decide the long-term availability of mifepristone, the safest and most widely used pill in the country.
On Wednesday, the federal appeals court in New Orleans will hear arguments in a closely watched case brought by anti-abortion activists seeking to ban the most widely used abortion pill in the United States, mifepristone.
The Biden Administration is trying to defend mifepristone against increasing abortion bans and restrictions enacted by Republican-moderate states since the US Supreme Court quashed the judgment in June 2022 through Roe v. Wade.
Lawyers for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as the pill's maker, Dado Laboratories, will try to convince a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit not to reduce access to one of the most used drugs in decades by thousands of American women, NBC News reported.
“Americans have been using mifepristone safely for more than two decades. More than five million women in the United States have used mifepristone to terminate their pregnancies, as have millions of other women around the world. And study after study has shown that serious adverse events are extremely rare,” the FDA presentation read .
Meanwhile, a group of anti-abortion doctors led by the newly formed Hippocratic Medical Alliance have said the FDA's approval of mifepristone in 2000 was “arbitrary” as well as “capricious,” for which should be revoked.
“The plaintiffs' argument is that the FDA 's judgment was not based on the required scientific evidence. The agency's position, that no court is worthy of verifying the FDA's work, reeks of arrogance,” the alliance argued.
The Administration is expected to argue that the plaintiffs have no right to bring the case because they are not harmed by the approval of mifepristone, yet the three judges on Wednesday's panel are conservatives, with a history of opposing abortion rights.
For now, the pill is available following an emergency order by the US Supreme Court that stayed the order of conservative and ex-activist Christian Kacsmaryk on appeal.
Weeks ago, major medical associations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association (AMA), have said in court documents that removing mifepristone from the market would harm patients by forcing them to undergo surgical abortions. more invasive.