Court rules abortion pill can remain legal but adds restrictions

A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld the legality of the abortion pill mifepristone, but placed new limitations on its usage and effectively banned its distribution in more than a dozen states.

The ruling came after a lower Texas court had blocked the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the nation’s most commonly used abortion method less than a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and set the stage for the conservative-led high court to take up the mifepristone case.

Just before midnight Wednesday, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that the FDA’s approval of the pill in the year 2000 could remain in effect.

However, the court reduced the period of pregnancy during which it can be taken and banned it from being mailed to women in the states that had outlawed abortion in recent months.

The ruling came after a lone federal judge last week blocked the decades-long approval of mifepristone, which is used in combination with the drug misoprostol, after a lawsuit by opponents of the drug.

The Louisiana court that reversed the ruling in a 2-1 vote also suspended changes made by the FDA in 2016 that extended the period when the drug can be used from seven weeks to 10 weeks into a pregnancy and allowed the drug to be distributed by mail without a visit to a doctor.

The two judges that voted to tighten restrictions are appointees of former President Donald Trump.

The lone dissenter, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, was inclined to put the lower court ruling on hold to allow for oral arguments.

In their decision, judges in the majority noted that both the White House and Danco Laboratories, the maker of the drug, “warn us of significant public consequences” if mifepristone was stricken from the market.

The future of the case is now in limbo.

Either or both sides could take it to the Supreme Court, and opponents of mifepristone could move to keep the lower court ruling in effect.

The Biden administration could also ask the high court to keep the FDA changes in effect while the case continues to be adjudicated.

“We are going to continue to fight in the courts, we believe the law is on our side, and we will prevail,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday while in Ireland with President Biden.

Meanwhile, a separate federal judge in Washington last week ruled that the FDA could not take moves to block the accessibility of mifepristone in 17 blue states that had sued to keep it on the market.

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that New York would stockpile 150,000 doses of misoprostol and the White House was also said to have contingency plans in place.

Jean-Pierre did not detail the administration’s backup plan amid the ongoing legal battle, instead discussing a new federal proposal that would limit the ability of officials to collect medical records of women who flee their home states to get an abortion.

The lawsuit that began the swarm of legal activity came from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group that was involved in the case that led to the country’s landmark abortion ruling being overturned last June after almost fifty decades.

In its suit, the group argued that the FDA did not properly review the safety risk of mifepristone when it approved it 23 years ago.

Medical groups have noted that millions of women have used it safely during that time, and the drug has shown to have fewer complications than wisdom teeth removal, colonoscopies and other routine procedures.

A survey released this week found that more than half of Americans thought abortion pills should be legal in their state.

With Post wires