US judge blocks bid to curb abortion pill access
A legal bid to introduce a temporary block on remote access to the abortion pill mifepristone in the US, while the Trump administration carries out a review of the drug, has been turned down by a federal judge.
A complaint filed by the Republican-led state of Louisiana is challenging the FDA's decision to allow mifepristone to be dispensed through mail-order channels, one of a number of actions taken by the agency in 2023, shortly after the Roe vs Wade legislation that gave women a constitutional right to abortion was overturned.
The US government and mifepristone manufacturers Danco Labs and GenBioPro opposed the motion, which was also filed by Louisiana resident Rosalie Markezich, who claimed she had an abortion after being coerced into taking mifepristone by her boyfriend in 2023.
Louisiana is also seeking to extradite the doctor who prescribed the pills, based in California, to face criminal charges.
In his ruling, Judge David Joseph acknowledged that the FDA is already in the process of conducting a review of mifepristone, specifically looking at the risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS) under which it is prescribed, to see if any changes to the access pathways are needed.
Along with the removal of an in-person dispensing requirement, the FDA also introduced telemedicine prescriptions as part of an amendment to mifepristone's REMS, seeking to safeguard access to safe abortion in states, like Louisiana, that moved swiftly to introduce restrictions after Roe vs Wade fell at the hands of the Supreme Court in 2022.
"At this juncture, it is the completion of FDA's promised good faith, evidence-based, and expeditious review of the mifepristone REMS, not 'government by lawsuit', that this court finds to be in the public interest," wrote Judge Joseph in his ruling.
The FDA launched its investigation into mifepristone last September at the request of 22 Republican attorneys general, leading to fears that politically-motivated efforts to curb access would prevail after SCOTUS unanimously rejected a lawsuit challenging the FDA's authority to regulate the drug and to relax access restrictions.
The pharma industry has pushed back hard against that attempt, arguing that it could set a dangerous precedent by undermining the FDA's gatekeeper role in approving medicines. However, it should be noted that SCOTUS only ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the complaint, and did not deliver a decision on the merits of the case as presented, leaving other avenues of challenge open.
Louisiana's Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill has already indicated that her office intends to appeal Judge Joseph's decision.
Photo by Manny Becerra on Unsplash
