US President Joe Biden and his deputy, Kamala Harris, have stated that their administration is determined to challenge a Texas federal judge's decision to halt the approval of mifepristone, a progesterone blocker used to stop early pregnancies.

In his ruling, Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk observed that the United States Food and Drug Administration stonewalled the issue by choosing not to address the issue raised by the plaintiffs, including the anti-abortion advocacy group Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.

“FDA waited 4,971 days to adjudicate Plaintiffs’ first petition and 994 days to adjudicate the second. Had FDA responded to plaintiffs’ petitions within the 360 days allotted, this case would have been in federal court decades earlier,” the judge noted.

Pointing out that the plaintiff had asked for injunctive relief but went on as far as requesting the Court to order FDA to “withdraw or suspend the approvals of chemical abortion drugs, and remove them from the list of approved drugs, the judge ruled that the although the court finds plaintiffs have a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits, it  instead exercises its authority under the APA to order less drastic relief and “Accordingly, the Court, hereby, stays the effective date of FDA’s September 28, 2000, Approval of mifepristone and all subsequent challenged actions related to that approval — i.e., the 2016 Changes, the 2019 Generic Approval, and the 2021 Actions.”

Accusing anti-abortion supporters of taking away women's rights and freedoms in every state, the US President urged people to elect a Congress that will pass legislation restoring the Roe versus Wade decision, which made abortion legal in the United States but was recently overturned by the US Supreme Court.

“Today a single federal district judge in Texas ruled that a prescription medication that has been available for more than 22 years, approved by the FDA and used safely and effectively by millions of women here and around the world, should no longer be approved in the United States,” a statement by the White House read. 

Noting that the court, in this case, has substituted its judgement for the FDA, the expert agency that approves drugs, the statement went on to say that if the current ruling stands, there will be virtually no prescription approved by the FDA that is safe from these kinds of political, ideological attacks.

President Biden stated that the lawsuit, and this ruling, is another unprecedented step in taking away basic freedoms from women and putting their health at risk and that it will not only affect women in Texas but would prevent women in every state from accessing the medication, regardless of whether abortion is legal.

Reiterating that his administration will fight the suspension, the presidential statement said that the Department of Justice has already filed an appeal and will seek an immediate stay of the decision.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris stated that the ruling jeopardises women's rights across the country to make healthcare decisions and obtain the medication prescribed by their doctors.

“Simply put: this decision undermines the FDA’s ability to approve safe and effective medications—from chemotherapy drugs to asthma medicine, to blood pressure pills, to insulin—based on science, not politics,” her statement read.

“Each person in our nation should have the right to access safe and effective medication which has been approved by the FDA,” the Vice President’s statement read.

“In the face of attacks on a woman’s right to access an abortion, our Administration will continue to fight to protect reproductive freedom and the ability of all Americans to make health care decisions with their doctors free from political interference,” it added.