A decision lambasted by the Biden administration. A US appeals court ruled on Wednesday in favor of reinstating restrictions on access to the abortion pill. This judgment, if confirmed by the highest court in the country, would result in a return to a limit of seven weeks of pregnancy instead of ten, a ban on the sending of the abortion pill by post, and the reinstatement of the obligation of prescription exclusively by a doctor.
The decision follows a hearing held in May before the Court of Appeals located in New Orleans (southeast) on access to mifepristone (RU 486) which, combined with another stamp, was used by 5.6 million women since its approval by the American Medicines Agency (FDA) in 2000. It concerns the suspension in April, by a federal trial court, of the marketing authorization for mifepristone , evoking – despite the scientific consensus – risks to women’s health.
The administration of Democratic President Joe Biden had appealed urgently and the Supreme Court had restored the approval of this pill, while the procedure continued. The Court of Appeal rules in favor of maintaining the authorization of the pill in 2000 and of the generic in 2019 but grants part of the requests of the plaintiffs, associations of doctors or practitioners hostile to abortion, in confirming the suspension of access relaxations decided by the FDA since 2016.
Backtrack
“Mifeprex will remain available under the restrictions in force before 2016”, as will generic mifepristone, say the judges, while stressing that their decision will have no practical consequences until the Supreme Court has ruled in a one way or the other.
But if this decision were upheld, “it would mark a considerable setback for women in every state [américain] in their ability to receive the care they need” and would undermine the “independence” of the FDA, reacted in the evening the spokeswoman for the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre.
The US Department of Justice will challenge the appeals tribunal’s decision in the Supreme Court, the official confirmed, denouncing “unprecedented attacks on women’s health”.