A federal judge in Texas on Friday issued a ruling revoking approval of the abortion pill mifespriston nationwide.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on Friday ordered the Food and Drug Administration's 2000 approval of the drug to be overturned.

The ruling, however, gives the legal representatives of the Joe Biden administration a period of one week to appeal the decision.

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In the court text, the judge alleges that the FDA violated proper procedure by giving its approval to mifepristone and that it did not take into account the "negative impact" of the drug on the health of people who take it.

"The FDA completely failed to consider an important aspect of the problem by omitting any evaluation of the psychological effects of the drug or an evaluation of the drug's long-term medical consequences," Judge Kacsmaryk wrote in the document.

The FDA approved mifepristone as an abortifacient method in 2000. Along with misoprostol, the two drugs are known as the "abortion pill" or medicated abortion.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has championed the cause of reproductive rights in the Biden administration, said the court decision sets a "dangerous precedent."

"It's contrary to what good public policy dictates to allow courts and politicians to tell the FDA what to do," Harris told reporters in Tennessee.

Planned Parenthood, the largest network of reproductive services clinics in the U.S. The U.S. Department of Health and Prevention rejected the ruling in a statement, calling it an "unprecedented and deeply damaging move."

"Today's decision by the judge in Texas to block the FDA's approval of mifepristone is outrageous and reveals how the court system is being used as a weapon to further restrict abortion nationwide," the organization's president said in a statement.

For its part, the conservative organization Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed the lawsuit from which this ruling emanates, celebrated the measure as an "important victory" for doctors and medical associations that opposed FDA approval.

"By illegally approving dangerous abortifacient drugs, the FDA put women and girls at risk and it is high time the agency was held accountable for its reckless actions," the organization said in a statement.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which protected access to abortion nationwide in June of last year, the use of these two pills has increased, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.

According to the organization's report, medicated abortions accounted for 2022% of all abortions in the country in 54.

  • United States
  • Abortion

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