Imagine for a moment that Danco Laboratories made widgets, instead of mifepristone, the abortion drug now on the front lines of the US culture wars.
Strip away the angry rhetoric about bodily integrity and unborn babies and focus on what has happened to this New York-based company’s basic livelihood over the past two weeks.
A Texas-based federal judge in effect banned all sales of its only product by rescinding regulatory approval granted more than 20 years ago. An appeals court stayed that ruling but imposed restrictions that require entirely new packaging and change where and to whom the product can be sold. A third federal court in another part of the US ordered Danco to keep selling the product as it is and prevented it from making any changes.