The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is arguing that reversing a decades-old approval of an abortion pill, mifepristone would harm hundreds of thousands of women, causing a public outcry.
The Biden Administration is pleading with a Texas judge to reject a request asking to withdraw the approval of the abortion medication.
The FDA claims that revoking the pill and granting the request, which is coming from pro-lifers, would be “unprecedented.”
“The public interest would be dramatically harmed by effectively withdrawing from the marketplace a safe and effective drug that has lawfully been on the market for twenty-two years,” the FDA said in a statement to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk.
The lawsuit was filed by the conservative legal group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which has helped write anti-abortion laws for states, such as Mississippi, in the case that led to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The group argues that the FDA unlawfully fast-tracked the approval of mifepristone through a process intended for the treatment of life-threatening illnesses.
ADF claims that the agency failed to take the protection of women’s health and mental well-being into consideration before giving it the green light.
Earlier this year, the FDA announced that the government will allow mifepristone to be dispensed at retail pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS.
Mifepristone was initially approved by the FDA in 2000, however, in the wake of pharmacies now being allowed to prescribe the pill, anti-abortioners are challenging it.
The medication, in conjunction with another drug called misoprostol, is used to terminate a pregnancy up to 10 weeks after a woman is pregnant.
In addition to pharmacies being able to give patients the abortion pill, all restrictions on mail-order shipping would be lifted, as well as being prescribed through Telehealth.