In the US, the second act of the drama over the abolition of abortion rights is playing out.
If in the first act the Supreme Court overturned its own 1973 decision, Roe v Wade, which recognized the right to abortion, now we are talking about banning the use of the substance mifepristone for medical termination of pregnancy.
Despite the fact that this drug has been in use for 30 years, several anti-abortion NGOs and individuals have filed a lawsuit to invalidate the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) registration of this drug, as well as to invalidate the way it provides this abortion drug. .
The plaintiffs point out that permission to use the substance was obtained under an accelerated procedure under President Clinton. However, in an accelerated manner, you can only obtain permission to use a substance that counteracts the disease, but pregnancy is not a disease. Therefore, the permission was obtained illegally. The plaintiffs are challenging the legality of changes in the regulation of the use of the drug: increasing the gestational age at which the substance can be used from 7 to 10 weeks and changing the procedure for distributing the drug (if previously a personal visit to the doctor was needed, now the drug can be received by mail). The plaintiffs also refer to insufficient research into the consequences of using the drug and harm to the mother’s health as a result of medical abortion.
Although the case will be heard for a long time, the plaintiffs are asking the court to take interim measures and now ban the use of the medicine throughout the country. And here we need to talk about the judge who will make the decision. A large number of pro-abortion and pro-LGBT public organizations opposed the appointment of federal court judge in Texas Matthew Kacsmaryk. The judge is known for his extremely negative public assessments of representatives of the LGBT community (in particular, he called homosexuality a disorder). The judge also harshly condemned abortion and spoke out against it.
Republican state attorneys general supported a ban on the use of the drug, while Democratic state prosecutors, as expected, opposed it. The federal government is ready to challenge the ban, but the appeal will go to the Federal Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which is the most conservative in the United States. Whatever the outcome, the case will likely end up in the Supreme Court.
Author: Igor Slabykh
