The decision by a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals would limit the use of mifepristone to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, instead of 10, and prevent its distribution by mail.
It would also require the abortion pill, which accounts for more than half of abortions in the United States, to be prescribed by a doctor.
Despite the ruling by the panel of conservative judges, two of whom were appointed by former President Donald Trump and one by former President George W. Bush, the drug will remain on the market for the time being.
Anti-abortion groups are seeking to ban mifepristone, claiming despite its long experience that it is dangerous. The case is the latest skirmish in the battle over reproductive rights in the United States.
The appeals court said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which approved the abortion pill in 2000 and made it more readily available in 2016, “failed to address several significant concerns about whether the drug would be safe for women who use it.” “
At a hearing in May, the three justices pushed back against government arguments that deciding whether or not to authorize the use of mifepristone should be left to the FDA.
The case stems from an earlier ruling by a conservative U.S. District Court judge in Texas that would have banned mifepristone.
The 5th Circuit Court blocked the ban on the abortion pill, but imposed access restrictions, after which the baton was handed over to the Supreme Court, where the Conservatives hold a 6-3 majority.
The Supreme Court temporarily preserved access to mifepristone, freezing lower court rulings and sending the case back to the 5th Circuit, whose latest ruling will also remain pending until the nation’s highest court decides whether to will hear the case.
It would be the most significant abortion case to reach the nine-member Supreme Court since it struck down the constitutional right to process in June last year.
Since then, some 20 states, mostly in the South and Midwest, have outright banned abortion or restricted access to it, while others, mostly on the coasts, have stepped up to protect it.
“Exemplary security”
The 5th Circuit Court’s ruling, if upheld, “would dramatically reduce the ability of women in every state to get the health care they need and undermine the FDA’s science-based, evidence-based process for approving drugs.” safe and effective,” the White House said. said press officer Karine Jean-Pierre in a press release.
She added that the Biden administration “will continue to fight for the freedom of women to make decisions about their own bodies.”
The Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal advocacy organization, said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that there is “scientific CONSENSUS on the exemplary safety and efficacy of mifepristone.
“Medical abortion is used in more than half of all abortions in the United States, and imposing outdated, unscientific restrictions will harm millions of America’s most vulnerable pregnant women,” he said. he declares.
Katie Daniel, director of state policy for the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, welcomed the court’s decision.
“The FDA ignored science and its own rules when it approved the Democrats’ reckless mail order abortion program,” Daniel said.
“We will not rest until the FDA and the for-profit abortion industry are held accountable for the suffering they have inflicted on women and girls, and the deaths of countless children. unborn,” she said.
The FDA estimates that 5.6 million Americans have used it to terminate a pregnancy since mifepristone was approved in 2000.
