FIGHT GOES ON

Court Partially Halts Ruling Restricting Access to Abortion Pill

A hardline conservative judge suspended the FDA’s approval of the drug last Friday.

The abortion pill mifepristone will remain available across the U.S. but with substantial new restrictions, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked part of an order Friday from Matthew Kacsmaryk, a federal judge in Texas, which suspended the Food and Drug Administration’s decades-long approval of mifepristone while he hears a lawsuit from anti-abortion groups seeking to have the drug banned completely. But the three-judge panel approved some parts of Kacsmaryk’s ruling, including pausing the FDA’s 2021 finding that mifepristone can be distributed by mail. The new ruling also means patients will now be required to make in-person visits to doctors to get hold of the drug.