Federal judge pauses case on mifepristone access until after midterm elections

Filed 1h ago · Via Stateline · The Buffoon Desk

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Miri's Magic Dance

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: White House photo by Chris Greenberg · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor paused a lawsuit by Florida and Texas attorneys general seeking to revoke the FDA's approval of mifepristone, granting the FDA's request for a stay while it conducts a safety review — a delay that pushes any ruling past the midterm elections to at least Dec. 1. The judge also denied a motion to dismiss from drugmakers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, who intervened as defendants.

The lawsuit, one of three pending challenges nationally, cites the 150-year-old Comstock Act and seeks to make the drug unavailable in all states regardless of local abortion law. Mifepristone has repeatedly been found safe and effective in studies, including the FDA's own 2023 review, which the manufacturer's CEO says it expects the new six-month review not to contradict.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A safety review of a drug the FDA already called safe and effective in 2023, timed to conclude right after voters have gone home, is not exactly a subtle maneuver. Whatever the review finds, the calendar alone tells you who this timeline is designed to protect.

Source: Read the original at Stateline → Scored: Miri's Magic Dance · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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