Federal justices in Texas and Washington rendered conflicting decisions on Friday, escalating the legal conflict around abortion and a widely used medical abortion medication.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal right to the procedure last year, the legal dispute over the drug mifepristone has heated up.
Mifepristone and misoprostol were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000. Mifepristone, one of two medications used to induce abortions, effectively terminates the pregnancy while misoprostol, the other medication, empties the uterus.
It is only approved for use up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, after which a woman must have an abortion using another method, such as vacuum aspiration.
Since the Supreme Court’s decision in June reversing the constitutional right to an abortion, at least 13 US states have outlawed the majority of abortions, including medication abortions.
The Democratic governor of Washington state disclosed last week that the state had a three-year supply of mifepristone on hand in case it became unavailable nationally.
A new law outlawing ‘abortion trafficking’ was signed a few days later by Idaho’s Republican governor. Adults are prohibited by law from assisting minors in leaving the country without parental permission in order to seek an abortion.
Two contradicting federal court decisions on Friday centered on the abortion pill.
In one decision, a federal court in Texas put a hold on the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill while allowing the Justice Department a seven-day window to file an appeal.
Then, in a dramatic legal reversal on Friday night, a federal judge in Washington state ruled that the FDA must keep the abortion pill available in at least 12 liberal states.
The FDA has relaxed regulations on mifepristone in jurisdictions where abortion is permitted, enabling it to be shipped through the mail with a prescription or to be sold directly in pharmacies like any other drug.
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