Abortion rights advocates gather in front of the J. Marvin Jones Federal Building and Courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, on Wednesday. U.S. abortion opponents are hoping to get a national ban on a widely used abortion pill through their lawsuit against the FDA.
The anti-abortion groups say the FDA used a flawed process to approve the medicine; they also say it should not have increased the term in which the drug is approved for use: In 2016, the agency changed its guidance allowing use in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, up from seven weeks.it approved the drug more than 20 years ago after “a thorough and comprehensive review of the scientific evidence presented and determined that it was safe and effective for its indicated use.
They claim the drug was improperly approved, and that the rules around it have grown too lax. They’re asking a federal judge in Amarillo, where this case was filed, to overturn the FDA approval. “It’s no accident that the complaint was filed in Amarillo,” Elizabeth Sepper, a University of Texas at Austin law professor,, adding that the plaintiffs “know they have a very sympathetic ear” in Kacsmaryk.