Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
A federal appeals court partially blocked a Texas judge's decision halting the FDA's approval of the widely used abortion pill mifepristone in a decision late Wednesday.
The big picture: The 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel on the conservative-leaning court means that, for now, mifepristone is still available in the U.S., but with several strict limitations.
- The Biden administration and the drug's manufacturer could appeal to the Supreme Court to have the lower court's ruling fully overturned.
- Mifepristone is part of a two-drug regimen used in medication abortion, which now accounts for 53% of abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
Details: The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Biden administration's request to hold part of the Texas judge's order blocking the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the pill, pending the outcome of the lawsuit challenging the FDA on this authority, which has been in place since 2000.
- However, changes the FDA made in 2016 lifting certain restrictions on mifepristone are now suspended under the appeals court ruling, so requirements that existed prior to that return — such as requiring the supervision of a qualified physician to obtain the pill.
- The judges also suspended the FDA's 2021 approval for the pills to be sent by mail.
Catch up fast: U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk last week stayed the FDA's approval of mifepristone, in a widely criticized decision that used anti-abortion rhetoric to argue that medication abortion has a "negative impact" and that the agency's safety data on the pill is "potentially misleading."
- The Justice Department quickly appealed, calling Kacsmaryk's order "extraordinary and unprecedented."
- The Texas judge, the DOJ argued, "upended decades of reliance by blocking the FDA's approval of mifepristone … based on the court's own misguided assessment of the drug's safety."
By the numbers: Overall, 53% of U.S. adults say medication abortion should be legal in their state compared to 22% who say it should be illegal, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted before the rulings were issued.
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