the abortion pill has become a new battleground in the United States among those who defend and reject the right to terminate a pregnancy, after the Supreme Court authorized each state to legislate in this regard.
Approved for more than 20 years, this widely used method is now under threat throughout the country. A conservative judge in Texas can be decisive in changing the course of this abortion method with the sentence that he will define this Wednesday.
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Could the abortion pill be banned throughout the United States? His future is decided this Wednesday before an ultra-conservative magistrate who Opponents of abortion ask that its authorization be suspended.
Matthew Kacsmaryk, who was a lawyer for a Christian organization before being appointed as a federal judge by former Republican President Donald Trump, will hear arguments from the parties in federal court in Amarillo, Texas.
It will then issue its ruling on the case, which threatens to have as resounding a social impact as the ruling of the Supreme Court that dynamited, last June, the right to abortion.
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Since then, fifteen conservative states have banned any form of abortion in their territoryand others like Florida are in the process of severely restricting this practice.
For Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the Planned Parenthood family planning association, “the Amarillo case is a call of attention for all those who thought it didn’t affect them” because they live in states that protect the right to abortion. Because Judge Kacsmaryk’s decision could be extended to the entire country.
“We are clearly very concerned, as the entire medical community should be. This would be a very dangerous first time,” Johnson added in a statement.
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A lawsuit filed by anti-abortion groups
In November, a coalition of doctors and anti-abortion groups filed a lawsuit against the US drug agency, the FDA, for having authorized 23 years ago mifepristone (RU 486), one of the two pills used for the medical termination of pregnancy.
The plaintiffs accuse the FDA of having chosen “politics over science,” in approving a chemical that can create complications, and of having “exceeded its powers.”
They requested that, while the substantive arguments are examined, the authorization of mifepristone was suspended throughout the territory.
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They strategically took their appeal to Amarillo, a Texas city far from major urban centers, where Kacsmaryk is the only federal judge.
Your profile and your supposed opposition to abortion have aroused concern in the ranks of abortion rights advocates, some of whom will demonstrate in court on Wednesday.
“It seems incredible that a simple judge in Texas could make a decision that would affect a product that has been approved by the health authorities and is being marketed safely since more than twenty years agoElisa Wells, co-founder of Plan C, an information network on abortion pills, told AFP.
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Organizations denounce the risk of the ban
Such a decision would be “devastating for women,” denounced the White House spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, ten days ago. Since 2000, more than 5.6 million women have used this pill in the United States and only slightly less than 1,500 have subsequently had complications.
Today, the 53% of all pregnancy terminations in the country are medicala less intrusive and less expensive procedure than surgical abortions.
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In the United States, the method that uses mifepristone and misoprostol has been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2000.
Can be used up to 10 weeks after the last period. Furthermore, women who want to terminate the pregnancy must resort to aspiration abortion.
A judge hostile to abortion policies
Since last summer, fifteen US states have outlawed abortion, following a Supreme Court decision authorizing them to legislate on the matter. In those states, medical abortions are also prohibited..
Despite this ban, organizations have mobilized to deliver abortion pills to the women of these states, from abroad or from other US states.
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The scope of these alternatives is difficult to assess. But even in those states, a lawsuit threatens to challenge the FDA’s approval. This complaint was filed in Amarillo, Texas, where Matthew Kacsmaryk, the sole federal judge, He is known for his hostility towards abortion.
The judge is expected to hear the positions of the parties on Wednesday and can issue his decision immediately.
INTERNATIONAL WRITINGWith information from AFP and EFE
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