Battle over abortion pill case continues in conservative federal appeals court
CBSN
Washington — A conservative federal appeals court in New Orleans is poised to weigh in on the high-stakes legal showdown targeting the Food and Drug Administration's decades-old approval of a commonly used abortion pill, the outcome of which could disrupt its availability nationwide.
The dispute will be heard by a panel of three judges, Jennifer Walker Elrod, James Ho and Cory Wilson, and is one of the most significant involving abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision last June that reversed the constitutional right to abortion. Elrod was appointed by former President George W. Bush, while Ho and Wilson were tapped by former President Donald Trump.
The case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, was brought in November by a conservative legal organization on behalf of a group of anti-abortion medical associations and physicians. The plaintiffs argued the FDA erred in 2000 when it approved the pill mifepristone, one of two drugs used in a medication abortion, and failed to adequately consider its safety.
