A federal judge on Friday enacted a stay on the Food and Drug Administration's two-decades old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.
Texas District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump, issued an order that would halt prescribing and distribution of the drug within a week. The drug has been on the market in the U.S. for 20 years.
CNN NEWSOURSE is reporting that shortly after the Texas order, a federal judge in Washington state said in a new ruling that the FDA must keep medication abortion drugs available in at least 12 Democratic-led states.
The judge gave the government seven days to appeal and ask for emergency relief before the ruling goes into effect.
An anti-abortion rights group had requested the preliminary injunction so that mifepristone would be taken off the market while the case is heard.
The group sued the federal government, claiming the FDA rushed the drug’s approval more than two decades ago. The group claims that the drug puts a patient's health at risk.
The federal judge heard arguments in the lawsuit on March 15.
The Justice Department defended the FDA's decision-making process saying the agency followed all laws when approving the drug in 2000.
Mifepristone is typically prescribed with another medicine called misoprostol. The drugs are approved to end a pregnancy through 10 weeks of gestation. According to the Guttmacher Institute, medication abortions account for more than half of all abortions in the U.S.
Many abortion providers say they would still prescribe misoprostol if access to mifepristone was blocked. The National Institutes of Health says misoprostol alone is still “effective and safe and is a reasonable option for women seeking abortion in the first trimester.”
This lawsuit is being heard at a time when abortion rights are being rolled back across the United States. Following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, numerous Republican-led states have restricted access to abortions.
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