A Texas judge ruled Thursday that three other states can move forward with efforts to roll back federal rules that make it harder for people across the United States to get internet service. Abortion Pill Mifepristone.

Idaho, Kansas and Missouri filed the request in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas. The only judge there was former President Donald Trump's nominee Matthew Kacsmaryk, who had previously ruled in favor of a challenge to the drug's approval.

States want federal Food and Drug Administration to ban telemedicine prescribing for mifepristone and requires use only in the first seven weeks of pregnancy, instead of the current 10-week limit. They also want three in-person visits to a doctor's office to get the drug, instead of none.

States argue that's because efforts to provide birth control pills "undermine state abortion laws and frustrate state enforcement," according to court documents.

At the same time, Kaczmarik said they shouldn't be automatically precluded from filing lawsuits in Texas just because they're not in the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that the case should have been resolved when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously preserved mifepristone last year when the justices issued a narrow ruling that abortion opponents who first brought the case lacked Legal right to sue.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Kachmalik's decision "opens the door for extremist politicians to continue attacking medical abortion in the courts."

The ruling comes just days before Trump begins his second term as president, so his administration will likely handle the case on behalf of the FDA. Trump has repeatedly said abortion is a state issue, not the federal government, although he also emphasized on the campaign trail that the Supreme Court justices he appoints will be in the majority when it comes to striking down abortion rights nationwide in 2022.

In the years since, abortion opponents have increasingly targeted abortion pills, largely because most abortions in the United States are performed using medications rather than surgery. So far, Republicans in at least four states — Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire and Tennessee — have introduced bills aimed at banning the drug. No state has taken the same approach as Louisiana, which last year classified the drugs as controlled dangerous substances.

Previously, Kacsmaryk sided with a group of anti-abortion doctors and organizations that wanted the FDA to be forced to completely revoke its 2000 approval of mifepristone.

However, states are pursuing a narrower challenge. Rather than fully aiming for approval, they are trying to undo a series of FDA updates that eased access conditions.

Yet even as state leaders work to severely restrict access to the drug, Missouri voters sent a different message in November when they approved a ballot measure to roll back one of the country's strictest prohibitions. In Idaho, abortion is prohibited at all stages of pregnancy. In Kansas, abortion is generally legal before 22 weeks of pregnancy.

In the United States, 13 states under Republican legislative control ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy (with some exceptions), and four states ban abortion after the first six weeks of pregnancy (before a woman typically knows she is pregnant).

Some Democratic-controlled states have passed laws seeking to protect doctors who prescribe medications through telemedicine appointments and mail them to patients in states with bans from investigation and prosecution. One study found that these prescriptions were the main reason residents in states with abortion bans had about the same number of abortions as before the bans were implemented.

Mifepristone is often used in combination with a second drug for medical abortions, and it has accounted for more than three-fifths of all abortions in the United States since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

These drugs differ from Plan B and other emergency contraceptive pills, which are usually taken within three days of possible conception (that is, several weeks before a woman knows she is pregnant). Studies have found that they are generally safe and complete an abortion more than 97 percent of the time, but are not as effective as procedural abortions.