The junk-science ruling restricting mifepristone approval uses language directly lifted from anti-abortion activists and spread by right-wing media – By Audrey McCade & Jasmine Geozon (Media Matters) / Apr 12 2023
Though many mainstream articles mentioned that the ruling relied on biased language, only some thoroughly debunked the blatant misinformation
Late last week, a Trump-appointed judge who was hand-picked to hear the case surrounding the 23-year-old approval of an abortion medication issued a ruling that favored anti-abortion talking points over science. Such language has been employed by right-wing media for decades and is used to create an alternate reality against the medical consensus backing abortion rights.
On April 7, federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a staunchly anti-abortion jurist and former conservative activist, ruled to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the medication mifepristone, the first in a two-drug regimen used to terminate pregnancies up to 10 weeks. Though mifepristone has been approved by the FDA since 2000 with an overwhelmingly positive safety record, anti-abortion groups specifically targeted widely used medication abortions as their next target following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a right-wing group dedicated to eliminating reproductive and LGBTQ rights, is representing a coalition of anti-abortion groups called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine in the suit. AHM incorporated in Amarillo, Texas, last August to ensure that the case would be heard by Kacsmaryk, in a blatant display of judge shopping.
