A federal judge in Louisiana on Tuesday ordered the Food and Drug Administration to provide a status report of its review of the abortion pill mifepristone, which the agency has so far kept under wraps.
U.S. District Judge David Joseph ruled that a case brought by the state of Louisiana against the FDA that seeks to impose restrictions on mifepristone must be paused in the meantime. Joseph wrote that the agency has to finish its safety review “within a reasonable timeframe.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced in a September letter that the FDA would conduct a safety review of abortion pills, which account for more than half of all abortions in the U.S.