The future of the abortion pill in the United States will be played out on Wednesday before an ultra-conservative magistrate who opponents of abortion are asking to suspend its authorization, 23 years ago, by the drug regulator.
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Matthew Kacsmaryk, who served as a lawyer for a Christian organization before being named a federal judge by former Republican President Donald Trump, will hear the parties’ arguments in federal court in Amarillo, North Texas.
He will then be able to render his decision at any time in this case likely to have an impact as resounding as the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States having dynamited, last June, the right to abortion.
In November, a coalition of doctors and anti-abortion groups sent him a complaint against the American Drug Administration (FDA), which they accuse of having authorized 23 years ago mifepristone (RU 486), one of the two pills used for medical termination of pregnancy.
The plaintiffs accuse the FDA of having chosen “politics rather than science”, by approving a chemical product likely to create complications, and of having “exceeded its prerogatives”.
Pending the examination of the substantive arguments, they ask Judge Kacsmaryk to immediately suspend the authorization of mifepristone throughout the United States.
Such a decision would be “devastating for women”, denounced the spokesperson for the presidency, Karine Jean-Pierre, ten days ago.
Since the year 2000, more than 5.6 million women have used this pill in the United States, and a tiny proportion (less than 1,500) have subsequently had complications without an established link, d ‘after the FDA.
Today, the majority (53%) of pregnancy terminations are medical, a less intrusive and less costly procedure than surgical abortions.
Since the Supreme Court of the United States gave each state its freedom to legislate, about fifteen of them have banned abortions on their soil and abortion pills are not authorized there.
But pregnant women in those states can still travel to neighboring states to get the pills. Others obtain them discreetly by mail.
