The U.S. government appealed on the 10th (local time) against the ruling of a federal court in Texas to ban mifepristone, an oral abortion pill. More than 400 pharmaceutical companies in the US have also issued protest statements, and the division over the right to abortion is getting worse.
According to CNN, etc., the U.S. Department of Justice filed an appeal against the Texas federal court ruling on the same day to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. It’s been three days since a federal court in Texas ruled to revoke the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of mifepristone, virtually the only oral abortion drug in the United States.
In its appeal, the Department of Justice said the ruling was a “bizarre and unprecedented decision” and “considering that mifepristone has been used legally in every state, the damage from this ruling will be nationwide.”
About 400 famous pharmaceutical companies in the US, including Pfizer, also issued an open letter protesting the ruling. “The (Texas) court decision disregards decades of scientific evidence and legal precedent, putting at risk the entire pharmaceutical industry focused on medical innovation,” they argued. The New York Times (NYT) noted that there was no mifepristone producer among the pharmaceutical companies that signed the open letter, and analyzed that “this ruling may go beyond the right to abortion and challenge the regulatory foundation of all medicines.”
‘Blue states’ like California and Massachusetts have urgently started stockpiling abortion pills. According to Politico, an American political media outlet, on the 10th, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he had secured 2 million doses of Misoprostol, another abortion-saving drug with relatively low effectiveness. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy also issued an executive order guaranteeing access to oral pregnancy savings and said she has secured emergency 15,000 doses of misoprostol.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision to revoke abortion rights in June of last year, the confrontation over the freedom of abortion has intensified. In January of this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed free oral abortion pills to be sold in pharmacies, which are not covered by state laws. However, with a federal court ruling in Texas, even abortion was in danger of extinction.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.