A federal appeal court panel put on hold a total nationwide ban of the abortion drug mifepristone but backed a conservative judge’s ruling that the medication cannot be dispensed by mail.
In a ruling issued just before midnight Wednesday, a divided three-judge panel ruled the widely used drug can mostly continue to be prescribed for now as challenges from both abortion opponents and the federal Food and Drug Administration play out.
But by a 2-1 vote, judges from the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a ban on dispensing mifepristone by mail can go into effect immediately and narrowed the time during pregnancy that it can be prescribed.
The ban on mailing mifepristone amounts to a dramatic new restriction on abortion rights, which would affect women nationwide even in states like New York with strong pro-choice laws.
It also means millions of women who live in Republican-dominated states that have banned abortion altogether will have no legal way of terminating pregnancies.
The controversial mifepristone case is likely to go to the conservative Supreme Court, which less than a year ago overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.
“We are going to continue to fight in the courts, we believe the law is on our side, and we will prevail,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday, speaking to reporters from Dublin during a visit by President Biden.
Mifepristone was approved for use by the FDA more than two decades ago and has been used by more than 5 million American women. Government regulators say it’s safer than commonly used pills like Tylenol and Viagra.
More than half of all abortions in the U.S. are carried out by medication, not surgery, raising the stakes for the effort to ban mifepristone.
In a far-reaching ruling last week, a federal judge blocked the FDA’s approval of the pill following a lawsuit by the drug’s opponents.
There is virtually no precedent for a lone judge overturning the regulator’s medical decisions.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone in 2000 could remain in effect.
But in the 2-1 vote, the panel of judges put on hold changes made by the regulator since 2016 that relaxed the rules for prescribing and dispensing mifepristone.
Those included extending the period of pregnancy when the drug can be used from seven weeks to 10, and also allowing it to be dispensed by mail, without any need to visit a doctor’s office.
The judge who opposed the ruling said she would have put the lower court ruling on hold entirely for now.