In the worst federal abortion ruling since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Trump appointee Matthew Kacsmaryk, District Court Judge for the Northern District of Texas, revoked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 23-year-old approval of mifepristone for the entire nation. Mifepristone, when used in combination with misoprostol for medication abortion, is the most widely used form of abortion, accounting for 53% of all abortions performed in the U.S.
Mifepristone is also a critical drug used in miscarriage management and other reproductive health needs. Mifepristone first received FDA approval in September 2000 for medical termination of pregnancy and has since been proven safe and effective in over 100 peer-reviewed studies. It’s also used for treatment of Type 2 diabetes and Cushing syndrome.
Now, a Trump-appointed judge has made an unprecedented ruling, “suspending” that FDA approval.
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Sign the petition: Urge the FDA to use its enforcement discretion to allow mifepristone to remain on the market.
A group of anti-abortion activists and organizations sued the FDA for its approval of mifepristone with the sole purpose of removing it from the market, further restricting reproductive health care. This case was deliberately filed in the Amarillo division of the Northern District of Texas, a single-judge division where the cases are automatically assigned to conservative Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk.
This latest attack by anti-abortion extremists affects the availability of mifepristone for the entire United States—even in states where abortion is protected. If they get away with undermining the FDA this time, it could set a precedent, putting the availability and use of other drugs and devices used for reproductive health care at risk. It also threatens the FDA’s authority over the approval process for all medications. This is a nationwide crisis.
But this is not the final word—the FDA can use emergency powers to restore access to mifepristone immediately. In the past, it has used its authority to allow other unapproved drugs on the market needed to treat medical conditions when there are no FDA-approved drugs available. We’re calling on the FDA to ensure access to mifepristone while it seeks to comply with a baseless court order and reconfirm its safety assessment, as well as use its enforcement discretion to allow mifepristone to remain on the market and state publicly that it is doing so.
We cannot allow politically motivated lawsuits instigated and funded by extreme anti-abortion actors to further their agenda to ban abortion, birth control, and other sexual and reproductive health care nationwide.
Sign the petition: Don’t allow the FDA to bend to the whims of anti-abortion extremists.