The appeals court ruled that the abortion pill mifepristone can remain available but with restrictions. However, access remains unchanged until the Supreme Court decides whether to take the case. The case marks a major legal battle since Roe was overturned. While the ruling allows the drug to stay on the market, it turns back changes by the FDA easing access. Any effects of the ruling are delayed as the case will likely return to the Supreme Court. The judges were appointed by Republican presidents and indicated a willingness to restrict the drug during arguments. Overall the ruling was a partial victory for both sides but access remains unsettled as the legal fight continues.
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The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that mifepristone and its generic counterpart can stay on the market, with Judge James Ho advocating the drug’s original approval should have been invalidated.
Those changes included increasing the gestational age when mifepristone can be used up to 10 weeks of pregnancy rather than seven, allowing the medication to be mailed to patients, lowering the dosage, and permitting providers other than physicians to prescribe the drug.
But the ruling essentially turns the clock back in favor of a group of anti-abortion providers represented by the religious conservative legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom.
The 5th Circuit agreed to put on hold part of Kacsmaryk’s ruling as it considered the case, and the Supreme Court later granted the Biden administration’s request to pause the remaining portions.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, two of the Supreme Court’s leading conservatives, said at the time they would have allowed the rollbacks to take effect.
The Justice Department and the drug’s manufacturer contended the challengers waited too long to sue over mifepristone’s original approval, and the panel agreed.