A panel of advisers has voted unanimously to recommend the Food and Drug Administration make a widely used birth control pill available across the United States without a prescription. The oral contraceptive, sold by Perrigo under the brand name Opill, is a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone, which is highly effective at preventing pregnancy. The FDA is expected to make a final decision on the pill this summer.
Meanwhile, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear arguments next week in a case challenging the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone more than two decades ago. All three judges are Republican appointees hostile to abortion rights. Two of the judges were nominated by President Trump.