WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is preparing for the worst if a conservative federal judge rules in favor of a lawsuit that seeks to limit access to one of two drugs commonly used to induce a medical abortion.
Two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, can be taken by women at home and are used for just over half of all abortions in the United States. But that could change quickly with a lawsuit filed by a Texas anti-abortion group that claims the Food and Drug Administration wrongly approved mifepristone for use more than 23 years ago.
The case is before a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump. A ruling in favor of abortion opponents could stop the sale of the drug immediately, but women would still have access to medical abortion with a regimen of misoprostol.
Vice President Kamala Harris vowed Friday that the White House would back off efforts to ban the drug as she convened a group of nearly a dozen doctors and abortion rights advocates to discuss a plan to respond to the looming threat of abortions medical. .
“There are now partisan and political attacks trying to cast doubt on the legitimacy of a group of scientists and doctors who have studied the significance of this drug,” Harris said. “Now there is an attempt by politicians to remove it from doctors’ ability to prescribe and people’s ability to receive.”
The mifepristone lawsuit was brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom, which was also involved in the Mississippi case that overturned Roe v. Wade. It’s the latest fallout from the fight over reproductive care the Democratic administration has faced since the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion last year.
Harris has not publicly announced how the administration plans to respond Friday to the decision to halt the sale of the drug nationwide.
Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was in California on Friday to meet with Planned Parenthood leaders to discuss access to abortion drugs.
Dr. Kristyn Brandi said she told the vice president on Friday that the decision could lead to widespread confusion about the availability of medical abortion in the United States. Brandi, who is president of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said she is already getting calls at her New Jersey clinic from women asking if medical abortion is legal in the state.
“It’s a very important thing to communicate to people: Medical abortion is not going away,” Brandi said.
He added that Harris expressed support for an immediate appeal of the ruling if access to mifepristone is stopped.
Clinics and telehealth providers braced for a ruling closing access to mifepristone by ordering multiple doses of misoprostol so they could offer single-drug therapeutic abortions. They will have to change the way they counsel patients, telling them that abortions with misoprostol are slightly less effective and sometimes more painful than abortions with both drugs.
Abortions using both drugs “can be up to 98 percent or more,” while misoprostol-only abortions are up to about 95 percent effective, Melissa Grant, chief operating officer of abortion clinic Carafem, told The Associated Press.
Mifepristone dilates the cervix and blocks the action of the hormone progesterone, which allows the pregnancy to continue. Misoprostol causes contractions that empty the uterus. Mifepristone is usually given orally first, followed by misoprostol a day or two later.
Studies show that medical abortions are safe and effective, although with a slightly lower success rate than those performed through a clinic procedure.
With the Texas decision pending, a dozen Democratic-controlled states filed their own lawsuits against the FDA on Thursday in Washington. The lawsuit seeks to make it easier for women to access the drug and says several FDA requirements for prescribing and dispensing it are “burdensome, harmful and unnecessary.”
When the FDA approved mifepristone in 2000, it placed several safety restrictions on its use, including limiting its distribution to specialty clinics and requiring women to pick up the drug in person. The Biden administration has sought to expand access to medical abortions in light of the Supreme Court decision, with an announcement this year by the FDA that it expanded access to the pill through retail and mail order pharmacies.
But some limitations remain, such as the fact that doctors must be specially licensed to prescribe the drug.
Several medical groups have long opposed these requirements, pointing to the low rate of side effects seen with mifepristone compared to other drugs that lack certification requirements.
Health writer Matthew Perrone in Washington and national medical writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago contributed to this report.
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