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A federal judge in Texas overturned the two-decade-old approval of a safe and effective abortion pill on Friday, the latest volley in a conservative battle against reproductive rights in the United States.
If it stands, the ruling by a Donald Trump appointee would reverse permission granted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a drug widely used to terminate unwanted pregnancies.
But, in an illustration of how deep the fracture on abortion runs in US society, a judge in Washington state moments later ruled in a separate case that access to the drug must be preserved in more than a dozen states.
The duelling of legal opinions, as well as an immediate vow by the US Department of Justice to appeal the Texas ruling, means the issue is almost certain to end up before the Supreme Court.
The conservative-dominated panel last year overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that had enshrined a woman's right to abortion for half a century.
Reaction to the Texas ruling was swift.
Vice President Kamala Harris slammed it as an "unprecedented decision that threatens the rights of women nationwide."
"Simply put: this decision undermines the FDA’s ability to approve safe and effective medications (and) threatens the rights of Americans across the country," she said.
The president of the powerful American Medical Association, Jack Resneck, said that allowing judges to interfere in "extensive, evidence-based, scientific review of ... well-established FDA processes is reckless and dangerous."
Planned Parenthood, one of the largest pro-abortion groups in the United States, said the ruling by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk — a former conservative activist aligned with the religious right -- was an assault on science.
