A federal judge, located in Texas, on Friday offered a resounding victory to abortion opponents, suspending the marketing authorization of mifepristone (RU 486) throughout the United States.

However, he gave the authorities one week to appeal before his decision took effect.

On 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 case, wrote the Department of Justice.

He asked this court, known for its conservative majority, to rule before Thursday noon, to give it time, in case 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 pill since its authorization by the US Drug Agency (FDA) in 2000.

When taken according to the instructions for use, "serious side effects are extremely rare", of the same order as for a very conventional drug such as ibuprofen, he argues, regretting that the court decided to deprive patients "on the basis of its own erroneous assessment of the risks".

Big Pharma

Echoing those criticisms, the White House spokeswoman said Monday that the move "attacks the authority of the FDA." It risks "opening the floodgates of the contestation of other drugs," warned Karine Jean-Pierre.

The executives of 250 pharmaceutical companies, including the giants Pfizer or Biogen, also slammed in an open letter a judgment that "creates uncertainty for the pharmaceutical industry as a whole" by "ignoring decades of scientific evidence".

A coalition of anti-abortion activists filed a lawsuit against the FDA in November challenging the approval of 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 ultraconservative Christian organization.

This magistrate proved them right 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 women's health. He also preferred the term "unborn human" to that of "foetus" and evoked "abortionists" to refer to structures that perform abortions.

Anticipating his decision, a coalition of Democratic states had appealed to another court at the end of February to try to preserve this pill which, taken in connection with misoprostol, now represents 53% of abortions in the United States.

Less than an hour after the decision of Judge Kacsmaryk, one of his colleagues, Judge Thomas Rice, appointed by Barack Obama and sitting in the state of Washington, ruled that mifepristone was "safe and effective" and prohibited the FDA from withdrawing its approval in the 17 states at the origin of the appeal.

Stocks

On Monday, citing "a strong tension" between the two judgments, the federal government sent "a request for clarification" to the Washington state court on how it should implement its decision, if Judge Kacsmaryk's ruling was allowed to take effect.

Without taking these precautions, several left-wing elected officials have called on President Biden to ignore Texas' decision and ensure that mifepristone remains on the market.

While waiting for the outcome of this legal slump, several Democratic states have taken the lead by stockpiling abortion pills. Washington State ordered 30,000 doses of mifepristone, Massachusetts State bought 15,000 doses.

In California, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he had stockpiled two million pills of misoprostol. This medication is usually used with mifepristone but can also be used alone, with a slightly lower rate of effectiveness and more side effects.

Several clinics are preparing to change their protocols, to administer this single substance, if mifepristone becomes effectively inaccessible, said Monday the Center for reproductive rights, which represents them in court.

© 2023 AFP