Did the FDA Classify Pregnancy as an Illness to Approve ‘Abortion Pill?’
Last week, a federal judge in Texas suspended the FDA’s approval of the drug mifepristone, more popularly known as the “abortion pill.” Less than an hour later, a Washington-based federal judge issued a contradictory ruling, preventing the FDA from limiting access to mifepristone in several states.
Yesterday, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito extended an administrative stay that blocked the FDA from taking any action to restrict the distribution of mifepristone. Meaning, “mifepristone remains fully legal in states that do not ban abortion,” — at least until Friday when the stay expires, according to Vox.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk who filed the suspension explained, “Mifepristone — also known as RU-486 or Mifeprex — is a synthetic steroid that blocks the hormone progesterone, halts nutrition, and ultimately starves the unborn human until death.”
In 2021, just one year before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the FDA approved mifepristone to be distributed by mail, outraging pro-life activists. The pill, also referred to as a chemical abortion, has several side effects, doesn’t always work as intended, is linked to the deaths of nearly 30 women, and has caused life-threatening illnesses in hundreds of women.
“According to statistics provided by Live Action, Planned Parenthood, and the Guttmacher Institute, chemical abortions potentially failed anywhere between 7,000 to 24,000 times in 2017. In nearly every instance of failure, either the child or the female is harmed during the process.”
TPUSA
Before 2021, women needed to go to a trained physician who would determine how far along the pregnancy was, to ensure that they are still eligible for a chemical abortion. Enabling women to receive abortion pills via mail order is reckless because oftentimes women will misinterpret how far along in the pregnancy they are, and a chemical abortion past a certain gestation could result in life-threatening bleeding and damage to the female — and of course, the growing fetus.
When mifepristone was first made legal in 2000, the FDA required physicians who prescribe the drug to be equipped with the ability to surgically intervene, stating that approximately 1 in 100 women need further medical intervention after taking the chemical abortion pill.
“Physicians who prescribe mifepristone must also be able to provide surgical intervention in cases of incomplete abortion or severe bleeding, the FDA said, or they must have made plans in advance to provide such care through others. In about one of 100 women, bleeding can be so heavy that a surgical procedure will be required to stop it.”
NIH
Judge Kacsmaryk suspended the FDA’s approval of mifepristone by claiming that the FDA’s approval of the drug was “arbitrary and capricious.” FDA regulations require that medications and drugs, like mifepristone, must be “studied for . . . safety and effectiveness in treating serious or life-threatening illnesses.” They must also “provide [a] meaningful therapeutic benefit to patients over existing treatments.” Judge Kacsmaryk wrote, “Pregnancy is not an illness.”
He argued in his ruling that the FDA failed to treat pregnancy as a “natural process essential to perpetuating human life.” The mere fact that the FDA gave approval for mifepristone, a drug not intended to heal or cure any ailment, appears to be in violation of their own guidelines pertaining to medications.
