Access to the abortion pill mifepristone must be restricted, a US appeals court ruled on Wednesday, ordering a ban on telemedicine prescriptions and shipments of the drug by mail, though the decision will not immediately take effect.
The New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals stopped short of ruling that the drug must be pulled off the market altogether, as a lower court had done.
The three-judge 5th Circuit panel was reviewing an order in April by US District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas. While it was a preliminary ruling that applied while the case was pending, Kacsmaryk said he was ultimately likely to make it permanent. “The 5th Circuit rightly required the FDA to do its job and restore crucial safeguards for women and girls, including ending illegal mail-order abortions,” Erin Hawley of Alliance Defending Freedom, a lawyer for the anti-abortion groups challenging the pill's approval, said in a statement.
GenBioPro Inc, which sells a generic version of mifepristone, said in a statement from CEO Evan Masingill: “We remain concerned about extremists and special interests using the courts in an attempt to undermine science and access to evidence-based medication, as well as attempts to undermine the US Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory authority.”All three judges on the panel are staunchly conservative, with a history of opposing abortion rights.
Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote in the majority opinion that those steps “were taken without sufficient consideration of the effects those changes would have on patients.”
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