A federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. by blocking the mailing of mifepristone prescriptions.
Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the abortion pill be distributed only in person and at clinics, overruling regulations set by the federal Food and Drug Administration.
One survey of abortion providers last year estimated that more women in states where abortion is banned obtained abortions that way than by traveling to other states.
“This is going to affect patients’ access to abortion and miscarriage care in every state in the nation,” said Julia Kaye, an ACLU lawyer.
If the court does not grant the request, the company said it will file an emergency appeal with the high court.
The conservative-majority Supreme Court overturned abortion as a nationwide right in 2022 but unanimously preserved access to mifepristone two years later.
“Women and children suffer and state sovereignty is violated every day the FDA allows abortion drugs to flood the mail,” Dannenfelser said. »