a The federal appeals court heard arguments Wednesday in a case that could determine the future of a widely used abortion pill, raising a series of questions surrounding the drug’s safety and leading at least one judge to suggest the fallibility of state drug regulators.
The three-member panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is charged with reviewing the legal challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of mifepristone. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a stay that kept the drug on the market and the decision on its future back to the Court of Appeal. While the judges — one George W. Bush appointee and two Trump appointees — questioned the drug’s safety, they also questioned the plaintiffs’ claim that doctors who object to abortion were forced to provide care under the current mifepristone regulations.
However, two judges repeatedly reversed the FDA’s decision and appeared to reject the government’s argument that a Texas federal judge ordering mifepristone off the market represented an “unprecedented and unwarranted attack on the FDA’s scientific expertise,” as Deputy Assistant Attorney General Sarah Harrington said.