A US federal appeals court has ruled that abortion pills, specifically mifepristone, can no longer be prescribed through telehealth or sent by mail, according to a decision from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana on Friday. The ruling on abortion pills sent by mail effectively restores an earlier requirement that patients must collect the medication in person from a healthcare provider.
The news came after years of shifting federal rules around abortion access in the United States, particularly following the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organisation. This removed the constitutional right to abortion and handed regulation back to individual states. Since then, access to medication abortion has increasingly depended on whether patients can receive prescriptions remotely or must travel to clinics in person.
