Federal appeals court backs limits on abortion pill mifepristone

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled in favor of placing limits on the use of abortion drug mifepristone, but the restrictions won’t take effect until the Supreme Court decides whether or not to hear the case. 

A three-judge panel on the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans sided with plaintiffs in ruling that mifepristone, the most common form of abortion in the US, cannot be obtained through the mail or administered without a doctor being present. 

The court also ruled that the abortion pill may only be used through the seventh week of pregnancy rather than the tenth.

The judges, all Republican appointees, overturned part of a lower court ruling that would have struck down the Food and Drug Administration’s two-decade-old approval of mifepristone.

“In loosening mifepristone’s safety restrictions, FDA failed to address several important concerns about whether the drug would be safe for the women who use it,” Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote in the panel’s ruling. 

In April, the Supreme Court ruled that the drug must remain available nationwide, staying US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling in a Texas court. 

That stay also applies to the Fifth Circuit’s Wednesday ruling. 

The Supreme Court is expected to decide in the fall whether it will hear the case. If it chooses not to, the restrictions allowed by the Fifth Circuit’s ruling may take effect. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Wednesday’s ruling part of a pattern of “unprecedented attacks on women’s health” and said that President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “remain firmly committed to defending reproductive health care.” 

“We strongly disagree with today’s ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, which undermines FDA’s scientific, independent judgment and reimposes onerous restrictions on access to safe and effective medication abortion,” she said in a statement. 

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra also blasted the ruling.

“Today’s decision undermines our nation’s entire system of drug approval by overriding the scientific, evidence-based decision-making of the FDA. This decision threatens Americans’ right to access the medications they need and, if it stands, would have a devastating impact on women’s health by restricting their access to reproductive health care,” Becerra said in a statement.

“The most important thing to know is that mifepristone remains approved and available while we fight this decision in the courts. We remain confident the law is on our side, and we will continue to vigorously defend the FDA’s independent, science-based drug approval process, and Americans’ right to access the health care they need,” he added. 

Mifepristone, which is manufactured by New York-based drug company Danco Laboratories, is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol, in more than half of all abortions in the US.