Appeals Court Saves Partial Access to Abortion Pills, With Limitations

What’s the story?

• A federal appeals court announced it would allow partial access to mifepristone, the abortion pill that Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas banned the sale of last week.
• Kacsmaryk’s ruling essentially pulled the drug from the market, which the appellate court said would have “significant public consequences.”

Limitations

• Accessibility to the drug will still be limited — the appeals court declined to block parts of Kacsmaryk’s order, which reinstates restrictions on the accessibility of the pill that were initially lifted in 2016. 
• The restrictions include requiring an in-person doctor visit to prescribe and dispense the drug, limiting the approval of its use to the first seven weeks of pregnancy rather than 10, and banning the distribution of the drug through mail. 
• These three constraints were measures introduced by the FDA in 2016 to increase access to the abortion medication. 

Kacsmaryk’s ruling 

• Last week, Judge Kacsmaryk ruled that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone in 2000 was invalid, making the sale of the drug illegal.
• The appeals court said the FDA’s drug approval still stands as too much time has passed. However, the court claimed it is not too late to challenge the FDA’s aforementioned 2016 additions that made it easier for patients to obtain the pill, allowing the court to block those means of access. 

DOJ's actions

• The Justice Department is stepping in to condemn the court's decision to dial back access to the pill. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland wrote in a statement: 

"The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the Fifth Circuit's decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA to deny in part our request for a stay pending appeal. We will be seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court to defend the FDA's scientific judgment and protect Americans' access to safe and effective reproductive care."

• DOJ lawyers argued that the court's actions "upended decades of reliance" by depriving patients of dependable access "based on the court's own misguided assessment of the drug's safety." The Supreme Court has yet to say whether it will take up the case. 

Read more about Judge Kacsmaryk’s decision and the reaction to it here.

Do you support limiting the abortion pill nationwide?

-Jamie Epstein

(Photo credit: iStock/PeopleImages)