Appeals Court Overturns Abortion Drug Ruling but Does Tighten Some Rules
A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court's ruling that had blocked access to the abortion drug mifepristone.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delivered that ruling on Wednesday, just before midnight. It came after a district court judge had paused the use of the abortion pill on Friday, allowing a week for an appeals court to consider the case.
The 5th Circuit said too much time has passed since the FDA approved the drug in 2000 to challenge initial approval. But its ruling does add some new limits on when the pill can be used. The tighter rules would only allow the drug to be dispensed for up to seven weeks, not 10. It also would end the distribution of this abortion-inducing drug by mail.
The increased telemed distribution of the drug has been a serious cause of concern. Over the past year, the Biden administration and their pro-choice allies have pushed for dispensing abortion drugs by mail in order to bypass new state restrictions and safety measures that have been implemented since the Supreme Court sent the abortion issue back to the states.
Pro-life groups contend that sending risky abortion drugs by mail puts the lives of women at stake because there isn't sufficient medical oversight when life-threatening side effects occur.
Alliance Defending Freedom has been fighting in court to overturn the FDA's approval of mifepristone. ADF stated, "In 2000, the FDA approved chemical abortion drugs by running roughshod over the law and science. Since then, the agency has not followed the science, reversed course, or fixed its mistakes—to the detriment of women and girls. Instead, it has been dismantling the few safeguards that were in place when the drugs were originally approved."
At the very end of President Obama's second term in 2016, the FDA moved to relax the rules for prescribing and dispensing mifepristone, allowing it to be dispensed to abort preborn persons up to 10 weeks gestation. Later, the FDA also allowed abortionists to distribute the drug by mail without any need to visit a doctor's office. The 5th Circuit's new ruling puts those relaxed rules on hold.
The debate over the abortion drug mifepristone, and whether the FDA violated its own safety precautions when it quickly approved the drug two decades ago, is likely headed to the Supreme Court.
While the case is in the courts, Democrat leaders of certain states where abortion has few safety restrictions are stockpiling abortion drugs. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday her state would stockpile 150,000 doses of misoprostol, another drug that is used to abort the lives of unborn persons.
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