A federal appeals court allowed the nation’s most-used medication abortion drug to remain on the market after Saturday, in a complicated ruling that would still put new limits on when and how mifepristone is available.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit late Wednesday put a hold on the most contentious part of a lower court ruling, which would have suspended the Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of mifepristone.
But the 5th Circuit order did not stop parts of the ruling about FDA revisions to that approval in 2016 and 2021, which means mifepristone would no longer be approved for abortion between seven and 10 weeks of pregnancy or for distribution by mail. Without intervention, the original ruling to ban mifepristone outright would’ve gone into effect Saturday.
