Some are calling it the most sweeping abortion restriction since the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe versus Wade.
A three-judge appeals court panel has temporarily halted women from receiving the abortion pill, Mifepristone, by mail.
The FDA approved Mifepristone in 2000. In 2023, the Biden Administration no longer required women to see a certified health care provider in person to receive the drug.
Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrell sued the FDA, claiming abortion pills sent through the mail skirted its statewide abortion ban.
Murrell told the Senate Health Committee, “After Dobbs, the Biden FDA promptly announced that it would remove the in-person dispensing requirements for abortion pills, thereby authorizing Mifepristone to be shipped nationwide by mail.”
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Abortion law expert Mary Ziegler at UC Davis said it became “doctors in states where abortion is legal, mailing pills to people in states where it is not. And the Fifth Circuit ruling has essentially put an end to that for now.”
Alexis McGill Johnson, President of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, calls this court ruling part of a move to enact a nationwide abortion ban.
“It’s incredibly outrageous to know that a federal court once again is coming for access to abortion,” Johnson said.
While abortion advocates claim Mifepristone is safe, others warn the abortion pill can be especially dangerous to women who get it in the mail.
Obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Monique Wubbenhorst told the Senate Health Committee, “The different risks that are associated are bleeding, infection, hemorrhage, need for transfusion, and perforation.”
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Pro-life groups praised the decision.
Alliance Defending Freedom, which is involved in the case, said it “prevents pro-abortion activists and doctors from mailing streams of high-risk abortion drugs into states that protect the lives of unborn babies.”
National Right to Life said it “restores in-person medical visits for dangerous abortion pills.”
Pro-life groups have long warned that chemical abortions have high complication rates and that the lack of in-person medical supervision puts women at risk.
Opponents also say mailing abortion drugs violates the Comstock Act, which prohibits sending birth control by mail.
The ruling is currently being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and abortion-rights advocates have asked the high court to put a hold on the lower court’s ruling until it can hear the case and issue a final ruling.
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ABORTION PILL REVERSAL:
