A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that abortion pill mifepristone can remain on the market, though with restrictions making it less accessible.
The ruling puts the Supreme Court in a position to potentially decide another major abortion case after its overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Wednesday’s decision is on hold until the Supreme Court chooses whether to take up the case, meaning the drug’s availability currently remains unchanged.
“Mifepristone is widely used across the U.S. to end a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks of gestation,” The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel and Zach Schonfeld previously reported. “About half of all abortions nationwide are performed using mifepristone as the first of a two-pill regimen. It is also used to help manage miscarriages.”
The appeals court struck down a lower court’s rescinding of the Food and Drug Administration‘s (FDA) original mifepristone approval. However, the panel upheld the lower court’s decision to block the FDA’s attempts to make the drug more accessible over the past eight years.
In recent years, these attempts included the FDA’s permission for patients to receive mifepristone through the mail, and to make the drug available through 10 weeks of pregnancy rather than only seven weeks, as initially approved.
