AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled the abortion pill mifepristone can still be used but restored restrictions in a decision that the Justice Department said Thursday it would swiftly challenge at the Supreme Court.
At stake in an accelerating legal battle that began in Texas is nationwide access to the most common method of abortion in the U.S., less than a year after the reversal of Roe v. Wade prompted more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.
In a ruling late Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans temporarily narrowed a ruling by a lower court judge in Texas that had completely blocked the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone. But a divided three-judge panel still reduced the period of pregnancy when the drug can be taken and said it could not be dispensed by mail.
The ruling preventing the pill from being sent by mail amounts to another significant constraint of abortion access and was cheered by opponents of the drug. The Justice Department said it would ask the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency order to put any action on hold.
“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 said Thursday.
Mifepristone was approved by the FDA more than two decades ago and is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol.
Abortion rights groups expressed relief that the FDA approval would remain in place for now but criticized the court for reinstating restrictions on the drug. Whole Woman’s Health, an abortion provider that operates six clinics in five states, said in a tweet it was continuing to offer mifepristone in clinics and through virtual services while reviewing the decision.
In the 2-1 vote, the judges put on hold changes made by the regulator since 2016 that relaxed the rules for prescribing and dispensing mifepristone. Those included extending the period of pregnancy when the drug can be used from seven weeks to 10 and allowing it to be dispensed by mail, without any need to visit a doctor’s office.
The panel’s decision came just days after the Justice Department swiftly appealed the far-reaching ruling by a federal judge in Texas that blocked the FDA’s approval of the pill in a lawsuit by the drug’s opponents.
