A federal judge in Texas (USA) issued a ruling on Friday revoking the approval of the mifespristone abortion pill at the national level. Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered that void the approval that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave to the drug in 2000.

The ruling, however, gives the legal representatives of the Joe Biden government a period of one week to appeal the decision. In the court text, the judge alleges that the FDA violated proper procedure in giving its approval to mifepristone and that it did not take into account the “negative impact” of the drug on the health of people who take it. “The FDA completely failed to consider an important aspect of the problem by skip any evaluation of the psychological effects of the drug or an assessment of the long-term medical consequences of the drug,” Judge Kacsmaryk wrote in the document.

The FDA has given its approval to mifepristone as a an abortion method in 2000. Along with misoprostol, the two drugs are known as the “abortion pill” or medical abortion. The Vice President Kamala Harris, who has championed the cause of reproductive rights in the Biden government, said the court decision sets a “dangerous precedent.” “It is contrary to what dictates a good Public politics allow the courts and the politicians to tell the FDA what to do,” Harris told reporters in Tennessee, according to US media.

Planned Parenthood, the largest network of reproductive services clinics in the US, rejected the ruling in a statement, stating that it is a “unprecedented measure and deeply damaging.” “Today’s decision by a judge in Texas to block FDA approval of mifepristone it’s an outrage and reveals how the judicial system is used as a weapon to further restrict abortion at the national level,” said the president of the organization in a statement. For its part, the conservative organization Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed the lawsuit that emanates from this ruling, celebrated the measure as a “important victory” to doctors and medical associations who opposed FDA approval. “By illegally approving dangerous abortion drugs, the FDA put women and girls at risk and it is time the agency was held accountable for its reckless actions,” the organization said in a statement.

Since the US Supreme Court reversed the Roe v. Wade, who protected abortion access nationwide in June of last year, the use of these two pills has increased, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute. According to the report of this organization, medical abortions represented 54% of all abortions in the country in 2022.