At issue is access to mifepristone, a drug that blocks hormones necessary for pregnancy. Mifepristone has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2000 to induce an abortion up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy.
Abortion pills have become one of the next major fronts in the fight over reproductive health care in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Mifepristone has been used by more than 3 million women in the United States since receiving FDA approval, and top medical groups maintain it is safe and effective.
Advocacy groups and legal experts said the case is unprecedented and are preparing for a range of outcomes.
"I don't know of any other case where a party has gone to court seeking to order the FDA to withdraw a drug, no less one that was approved over 20 years ago and has been used safely since that time by millions of people," said Jennifer Dalven, director of the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project.
Advocacy groups are also scrambling at the last minute to organize protests outside the federal courthouse in Amarillo after Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk waited until Monday to formally announce the hearing.
According to a transcript of a conference call with attorneys first reported by Talking Points Memo, Kacsmaryk said he was concerned about death threats.
"To minimize some of the unnecessary death threats and voicemails and harassment that this division has received from the start of the case, we're going to post that later in the day," he said.
Legal observers say Kacsmaryk will likely wait until after the hearing to issue a written ruling about whether to grant a request for a preliminary injunction.
The ACLU and other abortion rights advocates have argued that a ruling blocking mifepristone could open the door to other politically challenged lawsuits against birth control and drugs like Plan B, also known as the morning-after pill.
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