A U.S. federal court ruled late Wednesday to keep the abortion pill temporarily available, but under stricter regulations, as the lawsuit over its approval continues.
A three-judge panel of the New Orleans Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled 2-1 in favor of keeping mifepristone available under stricter regulations, such as requiring in-person doctor visits to receive the drug.
Under the sentence, access to mifepristone will require three visits to the doctor and will be limited to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, rather than the previous ten.
Mifepristone has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for more than two decades and is used in more than half of the abortions performed annually in the United States.
Last Friday, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump, overturned the FDA’s approval, but the government appealed the magistrate’s decision.
The appeals court said its decision will stand until the case is fully resolved. The tightening of regulations ends the restrictions that the FDA had relaxed in 2016.
The two circuit judges who voted to tighten the restrictions, Kurt Engelhardt and Andrew Oldham, were nominated by Trump. The third, Catherine Haynes, was nominated by former President George W. Bush.
This showdown over women’s reproductive rights in the United States comes nearly a year after the conservative-dominated Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, which established abortion rights 50 years ago.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden called Kacsmaryk’s sentence “unfair.” His spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters on Thursday during the president’s visit to Ireland that the government will continue to challenge the decision in the courts. “We believe the law is on our side and we are going to win,” he said in Dublin.
Jean-Pierre previously called the decision an “attack on the FDA’s authority” and said it “could open the door for other drugs to be flagged and denied to people who need them.”
Democrats and activists warn that Judge Kacsmaryk’s decision is part of a broader Republican effort to push for a nationwide abortion ban.
Shortly after Kacsmaryk’s ruling on Friday, a Washington state judge ruled in another case that access to mifepristone should be preserved.
The legal opinions, along with the appeals process, mean the case will almost certainly end up in the Supreme Court.
Surveys consistently show that a clear majority of Americans support safe access to abortion, but conservative groups try to limit what was once a legal right.
Source: DN
