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Court restricts abortion access across the US by blocking the mailing of mifepristone
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The Associated Press
Mifepristone tablets sit on a table at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Ames, Iowa, on July 18, 2024. Charlie Neibergall/AP hide caption
A federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. by blocking the mailing of mifepristone.
A panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the abortion pill be distributed only in-person at clinics.
Since the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed enforcement of abortion bans, prescriptions by mail has become a major way that abortions are provided — including to states where bans are in place.
Health Reporting in the States Abortion clinics are closing nationwide. Could urgent care help fill the gap? Health Over-the-counter medication abortion? These researchers say it would be safe "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 states.
Judges have long deferred to the Food and Drug Administration's judgments on the safety and appropriate regulation of drugs.
FDA officials under President Donald Trump have repeatedly stated the agency is conducting a new review of mifepristone's safety, at the direction of the president.
NPR's Embedded: The Network (with Futuro Media) Three years after Roe fell, more women are managing their abortions without doctors A Louisiana-based federal judge last month ruled that those allowances undermined the state's abortion ban but stopped short of undoing the regulations immediately.
"This is going to affect patients' access to abortion and miscarriage care in every state in the nation," said Julia Kaye, an ACLU lawyer. "When telemedicine is restricted, rural communities, people with low incomes, people with disabilities, survivors of intimate partner violence and communities of color suffer the most."
Mifepristone was approved in 2000 as a safe and effective way to end early pregnancies. It is typically used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol.
Both those requirements were dropped during the COVID-19 years. At the time, FDA officials under President Joe Biden said that after more than 20 years of monitoring mifepristone use, and reviewing dozens of studies involving thousands of women, it was clear that women could safely use the pill without direct supervision.
The conservative-majority high court overturned abortion as a nationwide right in 2022 but unanimously preserved access to mifepristone two years later.
That 2024 decision sidestepped the core issues, however, by ruling that the anti-abortion doctors behind the case didn't have legal standing to sue.
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+ Danco Laboratories, one of the makers of mifepristone, has directly asked the Supreme Court to grant it emergency relief, to allow mifepristone to remain available through telemedicine as the case continues.
− The decision sets up a likely appeal to the Supreme Court.
− The judges noted in their ruling that FDA "could not say when that review might be complete and admitted it was still collecting data."
In a court filing, Louisiana's attorney general and a woman who says she was coerced into taking abortion pills requested that the FDA rules be rolled back to when the pills were allowed to be prescribed and dispensed only in person.
+ The appeals court judges noted in their ruling that FDA "could not say when that review might be complete and admitted it was still collecting data."
In a court filing, Louisiana's attorney general and a woman who says she was coerced into taking abortion pills requested that the FDA rules be rolled back to when the pills were allowed to be prescribed and dispensed only in person.
− Because of rare cases of excessive bleeding, the FDA initially imposed strict limits on who could prescribe and distribute the pill — only specially certified physicians and only after an in-person appointment where the person would receive the pill.
+ Misoprostol is an older medication that is also used to treat gastric ulcers. It can be used alone to induce abortion and may remain available via telemedicine. The two-drug regimen is preferred because it generally causes less cramping and bleeding for most patients.
+ When mifepristone was approved in 2000, the FDA initially imposed strict limits on who could prescribe and distribute the pill — only specially certified physicians and only after an in-person appointment where the person would receive the pill.
− After Friday's ruling, Danco Laboratories, one of the makers of mifepristone, asked the 5th Circuit to delay its stay by one week. The company asked for time to appeal it to the Supreme Court.
+ Danco Laboratories, one of the makers of mifepristone, has directly asked the Supreme Court to grant it emergency relief, to allow mifepristone to remain available through telemedicine as the case continues.
+ NPR staff Selena Simmons-Duffin and Diane Webber contributed to to this report.