Federal appeals court halts access to mail-order abortion drug

(The Center Square) – A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily halted a Biden-era rule that allowed individuals to receive the abortion pill mifepristone through the mail without a prescription from a doctor.

A three-judge panel of the 5th ​U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that the state of Louisiana likely would win its lawsuit challenging the practice.

"A three-judge panel on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed the Biden administration's 2023 REMS nationwide," a news release from the Office of the Louisiana Attorney General says. "This means that prescribers cannot lawfully mail abortion drugs into Louisiana. The in-person dispensing of mifepristone is again required while the litigation proceeds."

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill sued after the Biden administration's Food and Drug Administration altered its safety guidelines and allowed mifepristone. to be prescribed online and dispensed through the mail, without needing an in-person doctor's visit. 

The FDA's move came after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which essentially returned the regulation of abortion back to the states.