The judges temporarily blocked part of a ruling that halted the FDA’s approval of the abortion medication. But it allowed recent provisions that increased access to be rolled back.
A federal appeals court allowed a medication abortion pill to stay on the market in a ruling late Wednesday, while tightening some restrictions around its accessibility.
A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit temporarily blocked a ruling from a federal judge in Texas, who determined that the decades-old Food and Drug Administration approval of the abortion medication should be put on hold. But the judges did not block a portion of the ruling that reversed a number of provisions in recent years aimed at making the drug more accessible – like receiving the pills by mail.
The medication, called Mifepristone, is the first of two used in a series to terminate early-stage pregnancies that’s been FDA-approved since 2000. But the agency has taken steps in recent years to expand access to the pill, which is used for more than half of abortions in the U.S., like extending the pill’s usage from seven weeks of pregnancy to 10 and doing away with in-person dispensing requirements.
The panel seemed to acknowledge public interest in maintaining access to the medication that’s been on the market for decades. But it did not say the same for the later provisions, since the nation operated without them for a number of years, making it “difficult” to argue that they “were so critical to the public.”
The order from the 5th Circuit, which is considered among the most conservative appellate courts in the country, came after the Justice Department asked the court earlier this week to temporarily block the decision from the judge in Texas that would stop the sale of the medication while the case plays out in the courts.
In his decision, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Amarillo, Texas, a Trump-appointee known for his conservative stance, sided with a group of anti-abortion medical organizations, determining that the FDA’s approval of the drug violated federal rules allowing accelerated approval of certain medications, while posing safety concerns for women.
Within hours of Kacsmaryk’s decision last week, another federal judge in a separate case issued a ruling which prevents the FDA from altering its approval of the abortion medication in some Democrat-led states.
Experts say the contradicting rulings make the issue all the more likely to reach the Supreme Court. And on Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department would ask the high court to intervene, after the justices just last year overturned the landmark case establishing a right to an abortion, delivering the issue back to the states.
But the decision to reverse the FDA’s approval of mifepristone would not leave abortion up to the states but rather impose a nationwide restriction on the most common method of abortion.
In recent days, Democratic leaders in states where abortion remains legal have announced preparations in the case that the medication becomes unavailable, like stockpiling doses of mifepristone or misoprostol, the second medication in the two-drug regimen, which some abortion providers throughout the country are reportedly preparing to employ on its own as an alternative.
The Biden administration has also taken a preemptive stance on protecting access to medication abortion.
“We are going to continue to fight in the courts,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday. “We believe the law is on our side, and we will prevail.”