Abortion Pill Ruling Means More Painful, Later Terminations
An appellate court’s order puts needless restrictions on a safe medication.
Restrictions on abortion medication ignore years of science.
Photographer: Moises Avila/AFP/Getty Images
The conservative 5th Circuit has blocked part of a Texas judge’s decision to pull abortion drug mifepristone off the market, but leaves in place onerous and outdated restrictions that the Food and Drug Administration determined in 2016 were medically unnecessary.
By rolling back the clock, the appeals court’s ruling increases the number of medical consultations required; bars the use of telehealth or mail-order pharmacies to fill prescriptions; and says mifepristone can be used only through seven weeks of pregnancy, rather than 10. It’s now up to the Supreme Court — which rolled abortion rights back to 1972 last year — to decide what happens next. The Justice Department said Thursday it would ask the high court to intervene immediately.