Appeals court upholds FDA's 2000 approval of abortion pill, but says moves to relax restrictions went too far
CBSN
Washington— A federal appeals court upheld the Food and Drug Administration's 23-year-old approval of the widely used abortion pill mifepristone, but said a series of actions the agency took in recent years to make it easier to obtain went too far.
A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a divided ruling Wednesday regarding an order from a federal district court in Texas. The panel agreed with the lower court that the agency's moves since 2016 to relax the rules for mifepristone's use should be reversed, but the panel declined to suspend the underlying approval of the medication.
The ruling will not affect availability of the drug, since the Supreme Court paused the entirety of the lower court's order as the appeals process plays out.
