Key Points
- Anti-abortion advocates have filed a lawsuit to ban abortion pills across the country in federal court in Texas.
- This lawsuit takes aim at mifepristone, a pill used in more than half of all abortions in the US.
- The battle comes nearly a year after the nationwide right to access abortion was overturned.
United States abortion opponents are hoping to win a national ban on an abortion pill, as their lawsuit against government drug regulators is argued before a Texas judge believed to be sympathetic to their cause.
Galvanised by , anti-abortion forces are now targeting the prescription drug mifepristone in a campaign to make abortions impossible anywhere in the country.
The suit against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) takes aim at a pill involved in 53 per cent of all abortions in the United States – more than half a million every year.
While the FDA has never been challenged on its approval of a drug that has been proven safe and effective, the coalition of anti-abortion groups behind the suit believe they can win a national freeze on the distribution of mifepristone.
Presiding over the case in the federal court in Amarillo, Texas, is judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a conservative Christian with a personal history of opposition to abortion.
The case landed in his court via what critics call "judge-shopping", in which plaintiffs take legal action in a district where the judge has a history of rulings that support their case.
It is not clear when Mr Kacsmaryk will make his decision, but if he rules in favour of the plaintiffs, the US government is widely expected to appeal.
A small group of protesters gathered outside the courthouse on Wednesday, carrying signs bearing slogans such as "Not your uterus, not your decision" and "Defend medication abortion".
Lindsay London, a 41-year-old nurse, said the case was "100 per cent ideologically based."
"If they were concerned about people's health there would be many other actions they would be taking. It's ideological, not based in science."
Is the drug safe?
As one component of a two-drug regimen used for medication abortions, mifepristone can be used in the US through the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
The lawsuit from Christian conservatives is aimed at overturning the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Source: AAP / AP/Allen G. Breed
But the Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative Christian advocacy group behind the lawsuit, says the approval of mifepristone "disavow(ed)" science, "ignored" potential health impacts and "disregarded" the complications that can arise with its use.
"The FDA failed America's women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States," they said.
The FDA has urged the judge to reject the request.
"The public interest would be dramatically harmed by effectively withdrawing from the marketplace a safe and effective drug that has lawfully been on the market for 22 years," it said.
Currently, some 15 states restrict access to mifepristone via laws that require a physician to provide it, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health policy and research group.
Abortion care has been halted in another 13 states after the Supreme Court overturned the long-established constitutional right last June.
The Texas suit seeks to block mifepristone nationally by overturning the FDA's approval of the drug and asks for an effective ban on the pill while the lawsuit proceeds through the court.
Abortion rights groups say a ruling blocking mifepristone would be as earth-shaking as the Supreme Court's ruling last year.
"Access to medication abortion would end across the country – even in those states where abortion rights are protected," the Center for Reproductive Rights said.
