{"id":289048,"date":"2023-04-13T08:59:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T13:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=289048"},"modified":"2023-04-16T19:45:18","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T00:45:18","slug":"fifth-circuit-upholds-abortion-pill-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/fifth-circuit-upholds-abortion-pill-suspension\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals Court upholds suspension of mail-order abortion pills"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has upheld<\/a> the suspension of mail-order abortion pills and reinstated requirements that the abortion pill be dispensed in person at a clinic or hospital and not at retail pharmacies<\/em>. While the Court ruled that the abortion pill can remain available, the latest decision would also require that all<\/em> adverse events related to the abortion pill once again be reported \u2014 not just women’s deaths. The abortion pill is estimated to be responsible for the deaths of approximately 5.6 million<\/a> preborn human beings.<\/p>\n

The\u00a02-1 decision<\/a>\u00a0released late Wednesday evening granted a partial stay to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Danco (defendants in the lawsuit filed by the\u00a0Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine) following a ruling<\/a> by U.S. District Court Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk suspending<\/a> the FDA’s 2000 approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.<\/p>\n

“In its decision, the 5th Circuit ruled that abortionists are no longer allowed to send chemical abortion drugs through the mail, which the FDA had been allowing since 2021, in direct violation of longstanding federal law. Additionally, in 2016, the FDA extended the permissible gestational age of the baby for which a girl or woman may take chemical abortion drugs\u2014from seven weeks\u2019 gestation to 10 weeks\u2019 gestation. The 5th Circuit\u2019s order moved that back to seven weeks\u2019 gestation, protecting the mother from adverse complications that increase with\u00a0gestational age, reinstated necessary doctor visits,\u00a0and brought back the requirement that abortionists must check women for complications after their chemical abortions,”\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represented the plaintiffs in the case.<\/p>\n

It continued, “The 5th Circuit also agreed with Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys that the FDA\u2019s approval of generic mifepristone was unlawful, and that manufacturer must cease production by Friday.”<\/p>\n

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Abortion pill changes 2000 to 2023 from AHM v FDA appeal<\/p><\/div>\n

The 5th Circuit Court panel wrote that it granted stays \u201conly in extraordinary circumstances.\u201d\u00a0 They went on to write, “This rule reflects the fact that ‘a stay is not a matter of right, even if irreparable injury might otherwise result…’ Instead, a stay requires ‘an exercise of judicial discretion.’\u201d<\/p>\n

“As the stay applicants, defendants bear the burden of showing why ‘extraordinary circumstances’ demand that we exercise discretion in their favor,” the Court added.<\/p>\n

“To the extent the defendants make any such showing, they do so only with respect to the 2000 Approval\u2014not the plaintiffs\u2019 alternative arguments challenging FDA\u2019s 2016 Major REMS Changes and all subsequent actions,” the 5th Circuit stay order reads. REMS<\/a> refers to the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy safety protocols, which are\u00a0designed to reinforce medication use behaviors and actions that support the safe use of medications that carry serious safety concerns.<\/p>\n