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Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
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For almost a quarter century, the Food and Drug Administration has persistently bent the rules to approve the mifepristone-based chemical-abortion pill known as RU-486 on a fast-track basis and then strip away safeguards regarding its distribution, sometimes using pretexts such as the Covid pandemic. It has done so while playing bureaucratic games to evade judicial review and disregarding the 176-year-old federal statutory ban on sending abortion drugs in the mail. At the same time, the Justice Department under Merrick Garland seeks to weaponize the FDA’s approval to preclude states from enforcing their own laws. This campaign has been a priority of the past three Democratic administrations, but while the Clinton and Obama administrations sought to promote the pill on their way out the door, the Biden administration has made it a continuing priority.