1 year ago
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A three-judge panel on a federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday to lift a ban on the abortion pill mifepristone, but reinstated outdated and medically unnecessary restrictions on its use and access. It would limit the use of the drug to the seventh week of pregnancy and bar it from being distributed by mail.
That’s a partial stay of the district court ruling from extremist judge Matthew Kacsmaryk that would have reversed the Food and Drug Administration’s 20-year-old approval of the drug. The panel of two Trump judges and one George W. Bush appointee made clear that they were only reversing Kacsmaryk on a technicality. “At this preliminary stage, and based on our necessarily abbreviated review, it appears that the statute of limitations bars plaintiffs’ challenges to the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone in 2000.”
Then they played doctor and overruled the FDA, imposing their own restrictions on the drug. In 2016, the FDA allowed for the drug to be used up to 10 weeks gestation and for it to be prescribed by some providers other than doctors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA temporarily allowed the drug to be available by mail, then made that permanent this year.
