Appeals Court Says Abortion Pill Can Remain Available but Imposes Temporary Restrictions

In the decision, two Trump-appointed judges voted to reimpose some of the restrictions that the F.D.A. had eased. The third judge, appointed by President George W. Bush, said she would essentially have granted the full request. The Justice Department is likely to appeal the order to the Supreme Court.

As conservative states began enacting bans on abortion after the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion last year, an increasing number of patients have sought the pills, some traveling to states where abortion is legal to get them, others receiving them through the mail after telehealth consultations with health care providers.

In their lawsuit, the abortion opponents claimed that the F.D.A. did not adequately review the scientific evidence or follow proper protocols when it approved mifepristone in September, 2000, and that it has since ignored safety risks of the medication.

The F.D.A. and the Justice Department have strongly disputed those arguments and said that the agency’s rigorous reviews of mifepristone over the years had repeatedly reaffirmed its decision to approve the drug.

In his 67-page ruling on Friday evening, Judge Kacsmaryk appeared to agree with virtually all of the claims made by the plaintiffs and repeatedly used the language of abortion opponents, calling medication abortion “chemical abortion” and referring to a fetus as an “unborn human” or “unborn child.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/health/abortion-pill-ruling-appeal.html