In 2000, in the last months of the Clinton administration, the Food and Drug Administration approved the mifepristone-based abortion pill commonly known as RU-486 or Mifeprex. From the beginning, the pill was given favored regulatory treatment, with accelerated approval under Subpart H, a program designed for emergency AIDS drugs. Utilizing this fast-track approval process required the FDA to characterize pregnancy, preposterously, as a “serious or life-threatening illness.”

The legality of abortion drug mifepristone is now in doubt after a conservative judge ruled Friday to block its federal approvals—which could have impacts beyond abortion, as mifepristone and other medications that can terminate a pregnancy can also be used for a range of other medical conditions, and those treatments may be affected by the court’s ruling and ongoing attacks on the drugs.

A federal judge in Texas has taken a shocking and irresponsible action: invalidating the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, a medication used safely by hundreds of thousands of women each year to help terminate pregnancies as part of a two-pill regimen. For what appears to be the first time, a court has invalidated an agency drug approval — an approval that was based on extensive review of scientific evidence, earned the unanimous support of outside experts and retains, after two decades, the full backing of major professional medical organizations.