After Abortion Pill Ruling, What’s Next For Abortion Access in the US?
Summary from AllSides News Team
Last week, a federal judge ruled that mifepristone, a key abortion drug, was improperly approved by the FDA in 2000. The ruling and subsequent appeal resulted in speculation on the future of both the drug and abortion access in the United States.
From The Left: A writer in HuffPost (Left Bias) argued that the ruling was part of a larger effort to enact a nationwide ban on abortion. The writer determines the judge is laying the groundwork for a “prenatal personhood” argument, stating that “they will not accept anything less than a full nationwide ban.” The New York Times Opinion published a piece from a former deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration arguing the judge’s decision was “shocking and irresponsible,” stating, “If judges can interfere with legitimate and well-supported F.D.A. action, there is no reason to believe that the consequences will be limited to abortion medications.”
From The Right: A writer in the Washington Examiner (Lean Right Bias) sided with pro-life advocates’ efforts, but determined that the abortion is costing Republican candidates at the ballot box. The writer concludes that instead of working for change on the legislative level, “the pro-life movement should be out with voters changing hearts and minds.” The National Review Editorial Board argued that the abortion pill received “favored regulatory treatment” from the beginning and stated that “drugs approved by the FDA are not intended to take a human life. No court can or should be blind to that reality.”
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Right
The Poison Pill Goes to Court
In 2000, in the last months of the Clinton administration, the Food and Drug Administration approved the mifepristone-based abortion pill commonly known as RU-486 or Mifeprex. From the beginning, the pill was given favored regulatory treatment, with accelerated approval under Subpart H, a program designed for emergency AIDS drugs. Utilizing this fast-track approval process required the FDA to characterize pregnancy, preposterously, as a “serious or life-threatening illness.”
A legal challenge was filed with the FDA in 2002, as is generally required before filing suit, and the agency sat on it...
From the Center
Mifepristone Ruling: Here Are The Unintended Health Consequences Of Attacks On Abortion Pills
The legality of abortion drug mifepristone is now in doubt after a conservative judge ruled Friday to block its federal approvals—which could have impacts beyond abortion, as mifepristone and other medications that can terminate a pregnancy can also be used for a range of other medical conditions, and those treatments may be affected by the court’s ruling and ongoing attacks on the drugs.
Medication abortion is traditionally a regimen involving two drugs: mifepristone, which terminates a pregnancy by blocking the hormone progesterone, and misoprostol, which induces contractions to expel the...
From the Left
I Worked at the F.D.A. The Abortion Pill Decision Is Dangerous.
A federal judge in Texas has taken a shocking and irresponsible action: invalidating the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, a medication used safely by hundreds of thousands of women each year to help terminate pregnancies as part of a two-pill regimen. For what appears to be the first time, a court has invalidated an agency drug approval — an approval that was based on extensive review of scientific evidence, earned the unanimous support of outside experts and retains, after two decades, the full backing of major professional medical...
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December 9th, 2023
December 9th, 2023
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