Good morning. Welcome to Exios today. It's Thursday, March 16. I'm Naila Boudou. Today on the show,

the tech industry implodes and advances all at once. But first, a momentous hearing on medication

abortion. That's today's one big thing. In Texas yesterday, U.S. District Judge Matthew

Kismaric seemed through his line of questioning to be open to overturning the FDA's approval of

myth of press stone, one of two drugs involved in medication abortion. Exios healthcare reporter

Oriana Gonzalez is covering this case and has the latest on when we might hear a decision

and what that decision could mean for abortion access across America. Hi, Oriana.

Hi, Naila. First, for our listeners who are unfamiliar, what do we need to know about these

medications and how they work? There is this misconception when talking about abortion pills,

that is just one drug that you take to self-manage your own abortion. And that's just not true.

There are two drugs involved, which are myth of press stone and misaprostol. And there's a series

of steps that a patient needs to take in order to self-manage their own abortion. When it comes

to this case in particular, though, they're only challenging myth of press stone, not

misaprostol. Myth of press stone was approved by the FDA to be used alongside

misaprostol for terminating pregnancies. And what's the basis for that legal challenge?

So the Alliance of Epochratic Medicine, which is a coalition of anti-abortion groups,

filed a lawsuit in November, with a series of arguments basically saying that the FDA did not

properly approve myth of press stone, that it did not consider different safety measures,

and that it considered pregnancy to be a quote unquote deceased in order to be able to approve

this drug. But I've spoken since with several lawyers that specialize in the FDA drug regulatory

process. And some of them have frankly just said that they don't think that they have standing to

be able to bring this lawsuit. Considering this drug was approved, myth of press stone was approved

...