Appeals court blocks mail-order mifepristone, restricting abortion access nationwide

 A federal appeals court late Friday blocked the ability of doctors to prescribe the abortion pill mifepristone through telehealth and dispensed through the mail.

A three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Louisiana in a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The court issued a temporary nationwide injunction that reinstates a 2021 nationwide requirement that mifepristone must be prescribed and dispensed in person.

Mifepristone is one of the two drugs commonly used in medication abortions.

The FDA permanently lifted the in-person requirement in 2023, leading to a surge in pills prescribed over the internet in the wake of the Dobbs ruling that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.

Louisiana argued the FDA rules made it easier for abortion pills to be mailed into states where abortion is banned. The appeals court said Louisiana showed it was likely to succeed in its challenge and was suffering irreparable harm.

“Every abortion facilitated by FDA’s action cancels Louisiana’s ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that ‘every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,’” the ruling stated.

The ruling Friday sets up a likely appeal to the Supreme Court and overrides a lower court’s ruling earlier this month that had paused the lawsuit while the Trump administration’s FDA conducts a review on the safety of mifepristone.

“Make no mistake: this ruling is not grounded in science or patient safety,” Brittany Fonteno, CEO of The National Abortion Federation, said in a statement. “It is a politically-driven decision that overrides medical expertise and years of research, and threatens to upend how abortion care is delivered nationwide.”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a statement that the “real-world consequences” of the decision “are devastating and immediate.”

“Mifepristone is safe and effective—millions of women have used this medication since the FDA approved it over 25 years ago,” she said. “The only reason mifepristone is regulated as heavily as it already is, is because of anti-abortion politics, not because of science.”

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5860135-mifepristone-telehealth-prescription-blocked/