5th Circuit Blocks Mail-Order Mifepristone

A federal appeals court panel in New Orleans ruled Friday that prescriptions for mifepristone, one of the most common abortion drugs in the United States, must be dispensed in person at clinics nationwide, blocking mail delivery.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision requires patients to obtain the pill directly from a provider, reversing Food and Drug Administration rules that had allowed telehealth prescriptions and mailing since the COVID-19 pandemic. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by Louisiana's attorney general and a woman who alleged she was coerced into taking abortion pills mailed from out of state. The court found that current FDA regulations undermine Louisiana's abortion ban by enabling out-of-state prescribers to distribute the drug within the state.

"Every abortion facilitated by FDA's action cancels Louisiana's ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that every unborn child is a human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person," the panel wrote in its opinion, authored by Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan and joined by Judges Leslie Southwick and Kurt Engelhardt.

The judges noted that while courts typically defer to the...