West Virginia can restrict the sale of the abortion pill, despite federal regulators’ approval of it as a safe and effective medication, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers determined Thursday that the near-total abortion ban signed by Republican Gov. Jim Justice in September 2022 takes precedence over approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Legal experts foresee years of court battles over access to the pills, as abortion-rights proponents bring test cases to challenge state restrictions. Chambers dismissed the majority of the manufacturer’s challenges, finding there is “no disputing that health, medicine, and medical licensure are traditional areas of state authority.”
Chambers will allow a challenge by the manufacturer concerning telehealth to proceed, however. Congress has given the FDA the right to dictate the manner in which medications can be prescribed, and the agency has determined that mifepristone can be prescribed via telemedicine. The decision by three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned part of a lower court ruling that would have revoked the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of mifepristone. But it left intact part of the ruling that would end the availability of the drug by mail, allow it to be used through only the seventh week of pregnancy rather than the 10th, and require that it be administered in the presence of a physician.
President Joe Biden’s administration said it would appeal, with Vice President Kamala Harris decrying the potential effect on abortion rights, as well as on the availability of other medications.
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