A Texas federal judge issued a decision Friday to suspend the Food and Drug Association’s more than 20-year-old approval of mifepristone — one of two drugs used together for medication abortion during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. 

The Donald Trump-appointed judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, is permitting time for an FDA response by allowing his decision to go into effect a week after issuing the ruling for Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA. 

A federal judge in Washington state contradicted the decision and blocked the FDA from rolling back access to mifepristone in a separate case decided Friday. An appeal from President Joe Biden’s administration also on Friday did the same. The competing rulings will likely head to the Supreme Court, according to the Associated Press. 

“If this ruling were to stand, then there will be virtually no prescription, approved by the FDA, that would be safe from these kinds of political, ideological attacks,” Biden said in a news release. 

Because the Texas decision is a national injunction, the result can affect the accessibility of abortion pills across the country, regardless of state laws. Mifepristone was used in more than half of all facility-based abortions in 2020, according to a Guttmacher Institute survey. 

About 20 members of Chicago’s branch of Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights held a press conference and rally to call attention to Kacsmaryk’s decision at Federal Plaza on Saturday. 

Patricia Wallin, a member of the abortion rights organization, said almost a year after the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion, the situation is getting worse for the abortion rights movement. 

“(Kacsmaryk) banned the FDA-approved pill that helps women have a safe abortion,” Wallin said. “What he said was, ‘We will criminalize women for trying to get a safe abortion.’” 

According to Planned Parenthood, the medication is the first stage in a two-step process for terminating a pregnancy during the first 10 weeks. First, mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone to break down the uterus lining so pregnancy cannot continue. Misoprostol, the second medication, is then taken to empty the uterus. 

In the Texas decision, Kacsmaryk said the original FDA approval of the drug in 2000 and the 2019 approval of its generic form were invalid. 

Kacsmaryk wrote that the court “does not second-guess FDA’s decision-making lightly,” but questioned the soundness of the evidence proving mifepristone is safe because the agency used an accelerated approval process meant for drugs that treat life-threatening diseases.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association and several other medical organizations signed an amicus brief for the case stating that data shows mifepristone is safe.

In a news release, Gov. J.B. Pritzker assured Illinois residents that reproductive rights remain enshrined in the state’s law. Many Democratic state leaders around the nation have said the same. 

But, many abortion rights groups have said they’re worried about the Supreme Court deciding the case after it reversed Roe v. Wade in June 2022. 

Wallin said even after the efforts of groups like Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights during the past year, federal lawmakers still have not done enough to ensure that “women’s rights are not up for gambling.” 

“We marched, we rallied, we mobilized, we traveled, we had meetings, we got informed,” Wallin said. “We did everything, but it wasn’t enough.” 

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Twitter: @shannonmtyler

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