The Fight Over the Abortion Pill Erases Years of Progress on Expanding Drug’s Reach
- 5th circuit decision keeps approval but reimposes restrictions
- Experts say rulings ignore research, limit access to safe drug
Packets of Mifepristone tablets.
Photographer: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
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The latest move in the fight over the abortion pill erases years of progress in increasing access to the drug, with the leader of the country’s biggest medical body calling it a “profoundly dangerous step backwards.”
A federal appeals court said late Wednesday that the abortion pill, mifepristone, could stay on the market while the Biden administration fights a Texas judge’s ruling that the drug’s more than two-decades-old approval is invalid. But the rules under which the appeals court said the abortion pill can continue to be sold are seven years out of date and not in line with the latest medical research. That’s not by accident.