The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals released their ruling overnight on the baby-killing drug mifepristone, which undoes parts of the lower court ruling but keeps part of it as well.
In short, the ruling allowed mifepristone back on the market but blocked its use past seven weeks of pregnancy and blocked distribution through mail.
POLITICO – A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that an abortion pill can remain on the market but only under strict conditions that prohibit its use beyond seven weeks of pregnancy and bar its distribution by mail.
In a 42-page order, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to temporarily block the central aspect of a Texas-based federal judge’s ruling that suspended the FDA’s 2000 approval of the drug, mifepristone. But by a 2-1 vote, the panel permitted other aspects of that ruling to take effect that would block a seven-year effort by the FDA to widen access to the drug.
Among the policies temporarily blocked by the court’s order: the FDA’s decision to expand mifepristone’s availability until the 10th week of pregnancy; authorization for retail pharmacies to dispense the drug; eliminating the requirement for in-person office visits to obtain a mifepristone prescription and allowing physicians to prescribe the pills via telemedicine; allowing non-physicians to prescribe or administer the drug; and ending a requirement for prescribers to report “non-fatal adverse events” related to mifepristone.
Reining in the drug’s availability while keeping it on the market is likely to dramatically diminish its usefulness to patients seeking to terminate pregnancies in Republican-led states where severe restrictions on abortion kicked in or were passed after the Supreme Court overturned the federal constitutional right to abortion last June. The decision will also significantly hamper access in blue states that have sought to maintain broad access to the pills — both for their own residents and for the surge of patients traveling across state lines to terminate their pregnancies.
According to Politico, the 5th Circuit ruling will go into effect by the end of the week unless the Supreme Court chooses to intervene.
They also point out that two of the judges were appointed by Trump and one by George W Bush, the latter of which would have blocked the entire lower court ruling. Of course.
The ruling isn’t a complete victory but it is good that access to the drug has been restricted so that less people are able to use it. It’s my hope that the drug is eliminated from the market altogether by the courts in order to save the lives of innocent unborn babies. After all, many believe the FDA overstepped its authority in approving the drug over 20 years ago.